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come near the spot where the strange performance takes place. 

 In some localities the rite of circumcision is all that is necessary. 

 This is the case amongst the tribes near and beyond the Peake. 

 Amongst other tribes, as in "Western Australia and the southern 

 part of this colony, the youth is inducted into manhood by 

 many stages, the last of which is not reached until late in life. 

 In some parts of the continent circumcision is not practised, 

 but the tribes that omit this custom are not very numerous. 

 The tribes living about Alice Springs, Charlotte "Waters, and 

 in the adjacent portions of the country have customs by which 

 young females become women and are permitted to marry. 

 The treatment they undergo on these occasions has doubtless 

 a powerful influence in checking a rapid multiplication of the 

 scions of the tribes, and from its nature must not unf requently 

 end in the deaths of some of those who are subjected to it. In 

 a paper like this it is impossible to enter into the particulars 

 of many of the customs, which plainly show how low in the 

 scale of humanity the Australian savage stands. At the same 

 time they cannot be altogether ignored. "Without pursuing the 

 subject further on this occasion it may suffice to say that the 

 inner life of some of the Australian tribes is made up of the 

 most barbarous cruelties and the most loathsome obscenities 

 that can be conceived even of a savage people. In 

 spite of this the 'children that are permitted to survive 

 are treated with the greatest kindness and affection. They 

 are well fed and carefully instructed in all those essentials 

 which can fit them to become useful and productive members 

 of the community of which thev form a part. This all ceases 

 when they reach the adult stage of life. The male becomes 

 then subject to all the laws and disabilities of the tribe, and 

 the female is the slave of him who takes, buys, or steals her in 

 marriage. He has the power of life and death over her, and this 

 is not used with a sparing hand. 



The co/'/'oborie, as it is called in New South "Wales, has 

 the same characteristics throughout Australia. At times 

 it partakes of a festal character ; at others it forms sort 

 of a warlike demonstration. One phase of it is too dis- 

 gusting for description. The festal gatherings amongst 

 strange tribes very often end in fights. These eorrobories 

 are mostly held at or near the full moon, and they form 

 a strange and interesting sight when the natives are numerous 

 and peaceably inclined towards each other. The Peake and 

 Charlotte Waters tribes are divided into four classes of 

 families or subtribes, called the Parula, the Pooninga, Pultara, 

 and Coomara. A Parula can only marry a Pooninga, and their 

 children only become Pultara or Coomara. If the Parula is 

 the father, the children are Coomara ; but if the mother, the 



