1320 



A USTRALASIA ILL USTRA TED. 





as Professor Huxley suggests, their analogues are to be looked for among the hill 

 tribes of the Deccan, it is easy to perceive how successful invaders of that type, slaying 

 most of the males, and appropriating the females of frizzly-haired autochtones of the 

 Melanesian stock, would in time produce a type such as that which is found among the 



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Australian aborigines of the present day. 



Of the languages spoken by these tribes there is but little to be said. There is 

 no doubt that they are all variations of one stock ; they all appear to have a common 

 grammatical structure, and the same words re-appear at great geographical distances, 



though lost in the intervening 

 country. With what family of 

 languages the Australians are 

 connected is not yet settled 

 by philologists, but it is cer- 

 tain that they have little or 

 no connection with that to 

 which the Malay, Polynesian, 

 and Melanesian belong. Dr. 

 Bleek, whose reputation gives 

 weight to his opinion, believes 

 them to be nearly allied to 

 the languages of south-eastern 

 Africa. In stature the Aus- 

 tralian natives come nearly up 

 to the average height of Eu- 

 ropeans ; but their limbs ap- 

 pear to be deficient in muscle, 

 this defect being especially per- 

 ceptible in the calves of the 

 legs. The whole body seems 

 to be built for activity rather than for muscular strength, and is often remarkably hairy, even 

 in the case of females. The colour is not black, but a dark chocolate brown. The lips 

 are prominent, the nose large, with spreading nostrils, and the eyes are deep set under 

 massive over-hanging brows, the white of the eye having a brownish tinge. The men 

 are full bearded, and the hair of the head is thick, curly, and black, as a general rule, 

 though occasionally inclining to be straight, and in some cases approaching frizzle. The 

 members of a well-known family in a Queensland tribe, referred to by Baron Maclay, 

 are completely hairless, but these present no more than a lusus naturae. 



Differences of language and custom, and especially the various words used for " Man," 

 divide the aboriginal tribes into certain groups, to which, for the sake of convenience, the 

 term "Nations" may be applied. Each of these calls its own members "Men," and 

 designates aliens by a term of scornful depreciation. In these nations each tribe has 

 also a local designation, often derived from the word used as a negative e.g. : the 

 Kamilaroi or Knmilrai the people who say Kainil or Knmil for " No." Extend- 

 ing throughout all these nations, a well-defined organization exists, on which the social 



A MALE ABORIGINAL. 



