CHAPTER I 



PRIMITIVE TILLERS OF THE GROUND 



FAR away across the seas, in the great island- 

 continent of Australia, there once lived many 

 tribes of natives. It was in the days before the 

 white man had reached the country, and there 

 were vast spaces over which these scattered tribes 

 might roam without coming into contact with each 

 other. But when the white man came and 

 established his great sheep-farms, and put up his 

 fences and his homesteads, the space over which 

 the natives might wander became smaller and 

 smaller. There are not a great many natives left 

 now, and their ways and habits have altered 

 greatly since the old days. But many people 

 have been greatly interested in their past history, 

 and have asked how in a continent which over a 

 large part is so bare, so rainless, and has so few 

 useful plants as Australia, they ever managed to 

 live. 



3E B 



