310 Life and Immortality. 



that simple, elementary sphere he displays no little nimble- 

 ness and dexterity. In tracking and running down his prey 

 he is unsurpassed. His weapons, though of the most primi- 

 tive forms, are well adapted for the purposes of the chase. 

 Rude and uncouth as his culinary and domestic apparatus 

 appear, yet they serve equally well the objects for which 

 they were designed. Some imitative facility, or rude sense 

 of elementary art, is possessed by him, as is evidenced by 

 the crude figures of sharks, lizards and other animals that 

 may be seen carved in caves in the north-east of Australia, 

 and on the rocks of New South Wales. That he has some 

 exuberance of rude sense is still further shown in his lan- 

 guage, which, within its very circumscribed sensuous sphere, 

 is fairly expressive and complete, and likewise in the ease 

 with which he learns to chatter the languages of peoples 

 with whom he has been thrown into contact. 



Outside the circle described, all is blank to the Australian. 

 He has no architecture, no pottery and almost no weaving, 

 and may be said to have no religion. His sensations may 

 scarcely, if at all, be said to have attained the dignity of 

 sentiments, much less that of sentimentalities. The man 

 domineers over the woman, who is as much his property as 

 his boomerang or dingo. Male offspring are held in consid- 

 erable estimation, and a father will bewail the death of a son 

 for months, and even for years. Old men and old, infirm 

 women, on the other hand, are cruelly abandoned, and left 

 to starve to death, for they are considered worthless and a 

 burden, and consumers of the food that should go to the 

 support of the young and physically strong. During the 

 summer they roam about naked, utterly strangers to shame, 

 which seems not to be innate to their natures. Wives are 

 accounted an item in a man's chattels, the stealing of which 

 being met with some definite punishment. Caves, where 

 they abound, afford shelter and security for some of the 

 tribes, but where these are not found, screens of twigs and 

 bushes covered with leaves or turf, or logs of wood and 



