-4 JOHN FRASER, B.A., LL.D. 



a subject of so much importance. Such records as these of what 

 is to be learned of the far distant races of the world are indeed 

 of great value. It is true that the idea has gained ground, 

 in not few quarters, that the aborigines of Australia are so 

 utterly degraded and so devoid of the ordinary distinguishing 

 marks of humanity that they can hardly be said to be men at all, 

 or, at any rate, men of the same species as ourselves. But the 

 testimony we have had to-night from one who has long lived 

 among them, and who, therefore, speaks of his own knowledge, is 

 extremely valuable, inasmuch as it presents a very different view, 

 and makes it clear that those who take the trouble to become 

 acquainted with these races, and by treating them with kindness 

 come to know them intimately, are able to tell a very different story 

 from that which is told by those who have only come in contact 

 with them to tyrannise over and ill-treat them. It has been 

 frequently and boldly stated that the aborigines of Australia have 

 no religious customs. I am afraid that a great many ignorant 

 people are too apt to be shy of making their religion public, so 

 that others may conclude they have none at all ; why, there- 

 fore, should we suppose that the habit of reticence which 

 induces so many to keep their religious feelings in the back- 

 ground is not to be met with in other races than our own ? Is it 

 not a rule that, what men care most about, they talk least about, 

 especially before strangers ? And, if this be so, ought we not, when 

 we find it stated that such and such a race is entirely devoid of any 

 religious feeling or sentiment, to assume that the assertion is 

 made from want of knowledge, and that in all probability the 

 contrary is the fact. We know it is being brought out more- 

 and more clearly that the negro race, whose fetish worship we- 

 have heard so much about, know nothing about fetish worship, 

 such as is frequently described ; and. therefore, if most of the 

 .statements that have been made about them are unreliable, 

 so also may be those that have been put forward with regard 

 to the Australian aborigines, whose very remarkable religious 

 customs have been traced out by the author of this paper, as well 

 as the extraordinary connexion that exists between their religious 

 customs and those practised by the black race in Africa. It is, 

 consequently, for those who say that these natives of Australia are 

 not of the same race or nature as our own, to explain how the 

 religious ideas, of which we have now heard, can have sprung tip 

 independently, especially the idea of that dim, shadowy kind of 



