464 STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL chap. 



growth of hair on the body, especially on the chest and 

 back, while the infants are much lighter in colourthan the 

 adults, and are clothed with a soft fur on the neck and 

 back. 



If we turn to habits and customs for some light as to 

 the probable derivation of the Australians, we find equally 

 clear proofs that we must go far beyond the limits of all 

 the immediately surrounding peoples. While Malays, 

 Papuans, and Polynesians all cultivate the ground and all 

 build good permanent houses, the Australians never do 

 one or the other. The pottery of the Malays and Papuans, 

 the bows and arrows of the Papuans and other Melanesians, 

 and the well-made and often elaborate canoes of all these 

 races are equally unknown to the Australians, who must 

 thus be classed among those savage peoples which have 

 made the very smallest advance towards material civiliza- 

 tion. 



Supposed African Affinities. 



In Mr. Curr's important work on "The Australian 

 Race," an attempt is made to show that there is a great 

 resemblance in language and in many of their customs, 

 between the native races of Australia and Africa. By 

 comparing words chosen among the numerous languages 

 of Australia with words having the same meaning in some 

 of the still more numerous African languages and dialects, 

 a considerable number of curious resemblances are found. 

 But it is not improbable that an equal number of resem- 

 blances could be found if the languages of any other 

 equally extensive portion of the world were taken for 

 comparison, because many words in all languages are either 

 onomatopoeic — that is, sound-imitations, or, what may be 

 called functional. Thus, words for the lips, mouth, or 

 head often contain labial sounds ; those for the teeth or 

 for things that resemble teeth, contain dentals — that is, 

 sounds which are only produced when the tongue touches 

 the teeth, as d and t ; while the nose, and things sup- 

 posed to resemble it, are named by words containing such 

 nasal sounds as n, ng, or ny ; hence names of these parts 

 of the body and words derived from them will often 



