THE AUSTRALIAN RACE. 467 



usually small and well-shaped ; the shoulders and chests of the 

 men broad, and sufficiently muscular. Such is the physical 

 character of the race from one end of the continent to the 

 other, and though tliere are deviations from the usual slim and 

 under-fed condition of the body, and from the usual straight 

 character of the hair, the face, figure, and expression of an 

 Australian is so peculiar as to distinguish him at once from 

 the inhabitants even of the immediately adjacent islands. 



In all the industrial arts these people are extremely defi- 

 cient. They are utterly destitute of agriculture, and of all 

 manufacture of any kind of material, or tool, or implement, 

 beyond their few weapons and a rude stone hammer, and some 

 simple nets and baskets. Over the largest part of the coast 

 they were utterly ignorant of any kind of canoe until tliey were 

 visited by Europeans ; and where most advanced in navigation, 

 knew no other method of crossing the water than in rude 

 boats formed of a sheet of bark tied at the ends, or on rafts 

 consisting of bundles of rushes or sticks. They have no huts 

 worthy of the name, nor permanent habitations of any kind. 

 Men and women are alike naked, except that in the southern 

 parts of Australia they wear a kind of rug of opossum skins over 

 their shoulders during the cold weather. Many tribes strike out 

 one or two front teeth, and raise great scars and cicatrices on 

 the skin. They also paint themselves with various colours, 

 like most other savages, and sometimes also ornament them- 

 selves with beads and shells, but make no use of the beautiful 

 feathers procurable from the birds of the country. 



Their languages, although showing evident traces of a com- 

 mon origin, yet vary so much and so frequently that a native 

 of one tribe can rarely understand the tongue of another fifty 

 miles distant. Their religious notions are limited to a feeling 

 of vague superstition. They are in great dread of an evil being 

 whom they describe as going about under the form of a black 

 man, of superhuman stature and strength. He prowls at night 

 through the woods around the encampments of the natives, 

 seeking to entrap some unwary wanderer, whom he will seize 

 upon, and having dragged him to his fire, will there roast and 

 devour him. He may, however, be frightened away, by throw- 

 ing fire at him, and no native will go out at night without a 

 firebrand to protect him from this demon. 



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