ANCIENT SCRIPT IN AUSTRALIA. Dyes 
A.p. According to the old Japanese syllabary the inscription 
read * Ki o chi o sa shi,” or in words * Kiochi osa shi,’ which 
meant “The number of the hopeless ones is 62” (the number 
of o's in the upright column on the right hand side of the 
figure), the conclusion being drawn that the record had 
reference to shipwrecked Japanese. It was also stated that 
similar character and language are found on the American 
Continent. 
In the more detailed and coloured drawing which is given 
in the Australian Association’s publication, the figure in 
question is shown to be not only clothed but shod, apparently 
with a soled boot without heel, such as those made and worn 
by Hindoos. In contrast with this clothed figure and 
Srlenily of the same period of art is shown a figure, nude, 
except for the turbaned head, on which he is ‘carrying = 
kangaroo; the man’s feet are well drawn and the toes clearly 
delineated. It appears, therefore, that both full attire and 
the fashion of its absolute abandonment—as prevalent with 
the Aborigines in their wild state—was familiar to the artist 
or artists who drew these pictures. ‘The 62 0’s accompanying 
the clothed figure have a peculiar method of arrangement, 
being vertically in three columns and horizontally either 
singly, or two or three approximately in a line; there is, 
doubtless, some meaning in this, possibly the three columns 
may represent men, women, and children, and the grouping 
may show their affinity. That there were women in the 
assemblage is evident by the representation of clothed 
female figures in the same style of drawing. It may be 
presumed that the “ hopeless ones” were a party of emigrants 
bound for Java, Timor, or one of the intermediate islands, 
blown out of their course in one of the cyelonic disturbances 
frequent in these latitudes, and carried to the N.W. coast of 
Australia. } 
Whilst it would be going beyond the evidence to contend 
that these were the first inhabitants of Australia, it is quite 
within the range of possibility that they may have been. 
The Aboriginal Australian is a distinct race, bronze rather 
than black-skinned, tall, straight-haired and bearded ; of one 
language, differmg merely in dialect; moreover, unique in 
weapons, customs, laws and ceremonies. It has been too 
much the habit of writers on the subject to decry the 
Australian as the lowest of the human race; far from that he 
is—under favouring conditions—unsurpassed in physical per- 
fection and thoroughly adapted to his environment. See 
