222 RIGHT REV, S. THORNTON, D.D., ON 



general, in characteristics shared at an early stage of their 

 common history ; which pohits to identity of original race, 

 but in the distant past. 



The antiquity of their arrival in the land may be inferred 

 from various circumstantial evidences, in default of all 

 records and traditions : such as the complicated diversity of 

 their tribal vocabularies ; and the length of time required 

 for the whole continent to have been overrun by them, and 

 partitioned into dowdai's, or taorais, i.e. tribal districts. 

 Strangely enough, they call Australia " the Little Country." 

 Kei Do'wdai, and New Guinea Murini Dowdai, or " the Great 

 Country," a term suggestive of a time when they reached 

 the former from the mountainous islands north of it, and saw 

 the prevailing flatness, before they learned tbe scale, of 

 Australia. 



The absence of the slave institution amongst them favours 

 their antiquity: and it lias been inferred also from the vast 

 scale of quarries from which they have hewn from genera- 

 tion to generation certain small stones they use for pounding 

 nardoo ; from the size of trees growing above their so-called 

 " ovens," — full of bones, stone-axes, and relics of human food ; 

 and from the enormous heaps of broken shells in their 

 favourite places for consuming, at particular times, certain 

 kinds of sliell-fish, — underlying, in some cases, the silt of 

 river-beds. 



The fact of the immigration itself seems to point to a 

 time when either navigation of the open sea was not un- 

 known to them, or very different geological conditions made 

 crossing Torres' Strait (perhaps on raits) much easier than 

 to-day. 



The great antiquity of any of the draAvings has, no doubt, 

 been challenged, and it is hard to establish it with any 

 confidence : but the above considerations seem to render it 

 probable, in the case of some of them. It is true that in some 

 places — perhaps owing to the character of the local rock- 

 surface — they are perishing rather rapidly, which may imply 

 that they cannot have existed long : but generally the case 

 seems otherwise ; and marks known to be many years old 

 seem as fresh now as if made yesterday. The yellow and 

 blue in some of the best drawings appear to favour the idea 

 of antiquity, pigments of those colours being little, if at all, 

 known to the modern black. 



The degeneration of the artistic and other capacities of the 

 race — as notably among the races of India — seems indicated 



