THE NATIVE TRIBES OF POLYNESIA. 447 



means of living are precarious and difficult to attain. Nor is there any 

 thing in the country with which the natives could trade. Their life 

 therefore is a mere existence, and oftentimes they are on the verge of 

 stavation. This scarcity of food naturally tends to the subdivision of 

 the people. They live chiefly on roots, seeds, insects, and fish, and to 

 obtain these in sufficient quantities they travel in small parties. These 

 are distinct communities. They do not habitually intermix, but they 

 have no objection to do so if the general interests render it expedient, 

 or if circumstances render it possible. They may be on friendly terms 

 or not with other similar sets, but as a rule feuds are rare among them. 

 They have enough to do to get their living without fighting, although 

 it is also highly probable that their very scanty fare has a general ten- 

 dency to mollify their disposition. When then we speak of the Yarra 

 Yarra tribes, the tribes of the Goolwa, or of the Murrumbidgee, as we 

 usually do, the word tribe must be understood as applying to the 

 various subdivisions of the people I have described. There are some 

 very marked differences between the natives of the extreme north of 

 Australia and those of the extreme south, but there are no distinet 

 nations, or tribes, as there were and to some extent still are among the 

 North American Indians. I have found different customs prevailing 

 among different tribes, different dialects of language may also be 

 detected between distant tribes, but still no decided line can be drawn 

 between neighbouring parties. It would be less difficult to do this, 

 perhaps, in the north than in the south ; but even there 1 doubt the 

 practicability. We ought rather, I think — in our present state of 

 knowledge — ^to regard the Australian aborigines as one nation, divided, 

 it is true, into many sections, which for convenience we call tribes, but 

 which present no greater difference of an ethnological character than 

 are to be found in the several counties of England at the present time. 

 Australia possesses a magnificent climate ; equalled in no place in 

 the northern hemisphere with which I am acquainted, and surpassed 

 only on some of the smaller islands of the Pacific. The natives there- 

 fore have no great need of clothing, and accordingly they wear none. 

 The trees are evergreen, and, although they do not possess a dense 

 foliage, a few boughs always suffice to give shade and shelter to the 

 aborigines. If clothing were a necessity, I do not know where it could 

 foe procured. Wild animals are scarce, and the natives, unlike the 

 Maories and many other of the Polynesians, have no knowledge of tex- 

 tile fabrics of any kind. The only tools with which they are acquainted 



