THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA. 2o 



regeneration, or second life, which would seem to be a part of their 

 religious system. It is very interesting to trace the customs that 

 are so strongly developed in this, ethnologically, out-of-the-way 

 corner of the earth, and to find expressed, in the manner related 

 by the author of the paper, the idea of the mysteries of 

 initiation, as well as other ideas that have been rendered familiar 

 to us through the classical literature which describes the Eleusinian 

 and other mysteries, derived no doubt from Egypt, which were 

 from a Hamite source; and these we find, in almost every feature 

 of the familiar type, developed in the far-away portion of the earth 

 with which we have been dealing. I hope that those present who 

 may have something to say on this subject will now give us the 

 benefit of their views. 



Rev. F. A. WALKER, D.D., F.L.S. On page 13 it is stated that " the 

 pomccrium, or circuit of the walls of Rome, was a sacred ring, and 

 the circus was consecrated to the sun and was open to the sky." 

 I should like to say that there is much in the nature of a counter- 

 part of this, on a small scale, still extant in the ruins of Ephesus. 

 There is a circular platform evidently, at one time, part of the shrine 

 of the sun, and having a circular base ; in the middle there is the 

 corolla of a flower and around it the remains of what would exactly 

 have resembled the petals of the sunflower. It is not part of the 

 circus, and it may be as well to mention that it is very near the 

 stadium or racecourse which still exists there. 



A VISITOR. I have lived for a Avhile in Australia, and as regards 

 the native belief in a God I may state that I have, in the course 

 of my travels, come across a great many cases in which men of the 

 very lowest type have shown that they all had some idea of religious 

 worship, and my conclusion is that the reason for this is to be found 

 in the fact that God has put into their minds faculties which compel 

 them, as a matter of necessity, of absolute necessity, to worship 

 Him, and the more we analyse the minds of men the more, I think, 

 shall we be inclined to come to this conclusion. 



Rev. H. WALKER-TAYLOR. As an Australian clergyman I 

 venture to say just a few words on what the writer of the 

 paper has brought before us. I am sure we are all very 

 much indebted to the author for having dealt so ably with 

 a subject which, in many of its aspects, is comparatively 

 unknown. I certainly do object to the idea that has been 

 getting abroad for many years that the aborigines of Australia are a 

 degraded people. Any one coming in contact with them, and 



