Australia and the Australians. 



THE AUSTKALIAN NATIVES. 



THEIR ORIGIN. 



R. CURR shows by quotations from Dr. Living- 

 stone, Rev. Duff Macdonald and others, the 

 wonderful resemblance between the Australian natives 

 and the negroes of Africa, in manners and customs, 

 and argues from this that they are of one common 

 origin. 



Their systems of witchcraft, the admittance of adult 

 males to the rights of manhood through the medium 

 of mysterious and very cruel ceremonies ; the facts 

 relating to marriage, the customs respecting burials ; 

 the singular practice of mutual avoidance between 

 son-in-law and mother-in-law, the dread of hair fall- 

 ing into the hands of an enemy, the mode of tossing 

 water into the mouth, and several other similar cus- 

 toms, from which it would appear that both peoples, 

 far apart as Africa and Australia are, have originally 

 learned all these things from the same source. 



