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KANSAS CIT\ REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



ANTHROPOLOGY AND ARCHEOLOGY. 



NORTH AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. 



PROF. OTIS T. MASON. 



Mr. E. Palmer, after having enjoyed exceptional advantages of personal ob- 

 servation, contributes to the Anthropological Society, of London, a paper of 

 great merit on nine Australian tribes, living chiefly on the streams emptying into 

 Carpentana Gulf. Tribal boundaries are known and respected, but there is no 

 individual right of land. When tribes met at a common festival, it was with the 

 consent of the owning tribe ; they never hesitate, however, to cross a neighbor's 

 ground for war or blood revenge. The color of the skin varies from black to 

 light brown. The women are healthy, their children precocious. Infanticide 

 is less common than supposed, but abortion is frequently resorted to. The men 

 are stoical and cruel, practice polygamy, and are skilled in deceit. Mr. Palmer 

 enters minutely into their hunting, foods, weapons, arts, ornaments, graphic 

 methods, amusements, beliefs, myths, ceremonies, burial, and healing art. 



That which will interest most highly the anthropologist is Mr. Palmer's stud- 

 ies in their class system. Mr. A. W. Howitt reviews his contributions, adding 

 information from other sources so as to make the chain as complete as possible. 

 It may not be known to all the readers of science that the Australian tribes are 

 separated into classes, four, or some other number. The blacks are born into 

 these divisions and they must not marry into their own class or eat the animal 

 which represents it, indeed, they do not like to see any one else eat of their 

 totem. A few specimens of these classes from the simplest to the more complex 

 will illustrate the subject: 



