NO EVIDENCE OF TWO RACES 283 



an immediate quarrel ensuing. Such a thing as an 

 accidental trespass is never admitted. The consequence 

 is, that tribes which are far removed from one another have 

 no intercourse ; and yet language and customs do not 

 differ so much as might be expected under such circum- 

 stances. There is a marked difference in this respect 

 between the natives of the north and those of the east and 

 south ; and the former use many Malay words, or words 

 which have a Malay base, and this, I think, is one reason 

 why they have been supposed by some writers to be of 

 Malay origin. But there is no universal language in any 

 part of Australia, and languages often differ most markedly 

 amongst tribes living in immediate proximity to each 

 other. The inhabitants of the north have from time 

 immemorial had much intercourse with Malays and other 

 Asiatics — hence the importation of foreign words, customs, 

 and, in some degree I daresay, foreign blood ; but there is 

 not sufficient evidence to justify the positive assertion, so 

 often made, that there are two distinct races of aborigines 

 in Australia. 



None of the native blacks, in any region of the 

 continent, are prolific. Few of the women have more than 

 three or four children, and of these more than half perish 

 in infancy. Many are born dead as the outcome of 

 brutality on the part of men anxious not to be burdened 

 with a large family. The woman carries one child on her 

 back ; if she again becomes a mother before this child is 

 capable of taking care of itself, the father usually insists 

 on the abandonment of the baby. 



In some tribes the young black has to undergo torture 

 before he is admitted to the privileges of manhood, in 

 others he has only to distinguish himself by skill in 

 hunting or bravery in war, in others again skill and daring 

 in wife-snatching is the test of manhood. 



The wife is generally obtained by theft, and often a 

 great wife-stealer will obtain many women in this way, 

 some of whom he will sell to men of his tribe : for though 

 a man to win a name for bravery and cunning must steal 

 at least one wife, he may purchase others. The wife is 



