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NATURE 



[April ly, 1879 



other ancient and modern peoples is discussed at con- 

 siderable length, and the result thus briefly summed up 

 in the introduction : — " Those who have seen such a 

 wonguim thrown by a native accustomed to its use, need 

 not be told that the statements published from time to 

 time in the scientific journals in Europe are founded on 

 hnperfect information, or dictated in an unphilosophical 

 spirit by a too great desire to prove that the Dravidian 

 races of the Indian Peninsula and the ancient Egyptians 

 belong to the Australoid stock, and that the boomerang 



was known to the Egyptians There is nothing t j 



show that anything like the wonguim was known to any 

 other people anywhere at any time, and it is at least 

 doubtful whether any weapon resembling the barngeet 

 [i.e., the war boomerang that does not return] was known 

 to the Egyptians. The wonguim and barngeet are alto- 

 gether different from the saparu, or sickle-shaped sword, 

 which is represented on Babylonian and Assyrian cylin- 

 ders as the weapon of Merodach or Bel." Thus the 

 boomerang goes the way of the etymologies, though it is 

 but fair to add that the famous passage quoted at p. 327 

 of vol. i. from St. Isidore of Seville, descriptive of the 

 Gaulish or Teutonic cateia, " Genus Gallic! teli ex materia 

 quam maxime lenta ; quae, jactu quidem, non longe, 

 propter gravitatem, evolat, sed ubi pervenit vi nimia per- 

 fringit. Quod si ab artifice mittatur i-ursum reddit ad 

 eum qui misit. Hujus meminit Vergilius dicens. Teu- 

 totiico ritu so/iti torquere cateias. Unde et eas Hispani 

 TeJttones wozzxiV ("Origin." xviii. c. vii.), has not been 

 satisfactorily got over. At the same time it may not be 

 superfluous to remember that Gauls and Teutons were 

 not Dravidians, and that, notwithstanding its return 

 motion, the cateia was not necessarily a wotiguitn, for 

 other weapons also can be made to behave in the same 

 way. The author regards the boomerang as of native 

 invention, and adds that it is not known in all parts of 

 the Continent, and has not been found in New Guinea or 

 Tasmania. 



In the section devoted to the subject of canoes, another 

 popular error is exploded, for it is here abundantly shown 

 that seaworthy boats made of the bark of the gum-tree, 

 and evidently of native invention, were common in the 

 south and east, and not merely on the north coast, where 

 they might have been introduced by the Papuans from 

 New Guinea, or the Malays from the Eastern Archipelago. 

 On the other hand, the practice of cannibalism, about 

 which doubts have always been entertained, is fully con- 

 firmed. " It cannot be denied that cannibalism prevailed 

 at one time throughout the whole of Australia. The 

 natives killed and ate little children, and the bodies of 



warriors slain in battle were eaten It is sad to 



relate that there are only too many well-authenticated 

 instances of cannibalism," &c. (Introd. xxxvii.). It may 

 be added that some years ago the writer received direct 

 evidence of an undoubted case from a lad named Bene- 

 dict brought to Europe by Dr. Brady, formerly Roman 

 Catholic Bishop of Perth (West Australia), and who 

 assured him that his own little sister had been " speared, 

 roasted, and eaten " by a hostile tribe near New Norcia. 



The current views regarding the extremely low mental 

 capacity of the natives, and even regarding their moral 

 qualities, are in other respects shown to be entirely at 

 variance with the truth. In such a wide area there are, 



of course, great mental as there are great physical differ- 

 ences. But the author's assertion that the estimate 

 commonly entertained of their intellect is, on the whole 

 far too low, seems to be fully borne out by the evidence 

 here accumulated. Though without permanent dwellings, 

 they make provision for the future, construct permanent 

 works of art, have a common property in some things, 

 respect each other's rights, are ^skilful hunters, have five 

 different ways of catching fish, and are far less cruel and 

 ferocious than many savage races usually regarded as 

 their superiors. They have a keen sense of justice, 

 though their standard of right and wrong, and their 

 notions of political economy maybe different from ours, 

 as is evident from the language addressed to Mr. G. F. 

 Moore, Advocate- General of West Australia, by Yagan, 

 Chief of the Upper Swan tribe, in the year 1843 : "Why 

 do you white people come in ships to our country and 

 shoot down poor black fellows who do not understand 

 you ? You listen to me ! The wild black fellows do not 

 understand your laws ; every living animal that roams 

 the country, and every edible root that grows in the 

 ground, are common property ! A black man claims 

 nothing as his own but his cloak, his weapons, and his 

 name ! Children are under no restraint from infancy 

 upwards ; a little baby boy, as soon as he is old enough, 

 beats his mother, and she always lets him ! When he 

 can carry a spear he throws it at any living thing that 

 crosses his path, and when he becomes a man his chief 

 employment is hunting. He does not understand that 

 animals or plants can belong to one person more than to 

 another. Sometimes a party of natives come down from 

 the hills, tired and hungry, and fall in with strange 

 animals you call sheep ; of course, away flies the spear, 

 and presently they have a feast ! Then you white men 

 come and shoot the poor black fellows ! But for every 

 black man you white fellows shoot I will kill a white man ! 

 And the poor hungry women have always been accustomed 

 to dig every edible root, and when they come across a 

 potato garden, of course down goes the wannd (yam- 

 stick), and up comes the potato, which is at once put into 

 the bag. Then you white men shoot at poor black fellows. 

 I will take life for life " (ii. p. 228). And so the comedy 

 is played out, until there are no more " black fellows " 

 left on the scene, and when they are gone the white man 

 does them, perhaps, the tardy justice to admit that he 

 never understood them, and that they were not, after all, 

 quite so bad as he had supposed. 



At one time the natives were thought to be so stupid 

 that they could not recognise the pictures or other 

 representations even of such familiar objects as kan- 

 garoos, emus, or gum-trees. But so far from that being 

 the case, they are here shown to be tolerably expert 

 draughtsmen ; and at p. 258, vol. ii. there is given a fac- 

 simile of a drawing of some squatters by a native lad, in 

 which the attitudes and expressions are admirably de- 

 lineated, "clearly indicating the humorous train of 

 thought passing through the mind of the artist, who must 

 have been a close observer and a good mimic." 



From the facts adduced in the section devoted to the 

 native myths it is evident that they have some notion of 

 a future state, though their ideas of the deity are often 

 somewhat crude, and their conception of the universe 

 decidedly materialistic. Thus we are told that Bun-jil 



