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one tribe into the territory of another without leave or 

 invitation is regarded as an act of war, and is resented accor- 

 dingly. If this intertribal custom in connection with the fact of 

 ownership, personal and tribal, could have been impressed upon 

 or had been recognised by those who controlled the process of 

 settlement in the Australian colonies when they were founded it 

 is not improbable that the natives would not have disappeared as 

 fast as they have done. The recognition of the rights of a 

 tribe or of an individual must have entailed some official 

 attempt to preserve the language, in order to make the record 

 of sale or transfer complete, and this again must have brought 

 with it a careful observation of manners and customs, which in 

 a scientific point of view would have been of the greatest value 

 at the present time. The rights of the natives, although 

 enforced against each other, were not enforced against the 

 Europeans, and the result is now before us in the absolute 

 extinction of those tribes who were first associated with 

 Europeans, and the total loss of their language. Amongst 

 existing tribes, and those whose histories have been recorded, 

 there seems to be one system of law which applies to offences 

 of a grave character. Murder is invariably punished with 

 death. There is no known deviation from this rule. Adultery, 

 strange to say, is similarly punished uuless it should occur with 

 the consent or connivance of the husband. The intermarriage 

 of individuals of the same family is looked upon as incestuous, 

 and is avenged by death. Amongst the natives at Alice 

 Springs and the surrounding country the punishment inflicted 

 on the offending woman is horrible. She is mutilated with 

 stone knives, and in one instance narrated in a letter in the 

 writer's possession the unfortunate delinquent was so cut 

 about that her bowels came out through her back. The natives, 

 however, do worse than this, and such treatment may be 

 regarded as merciful in comparison with some of the punish- 

 ments they inflict on such occasions. If a native has killed 

 another his life is forfeited to the tribe of the deceased. If he 

 should die or succeed in eluding the vengeance of those who 

 seek his life his brother or some other relation must suffer in 

 his place. Eor trifling offences the guilty person submits to 

 have a spear thrust through his leg or arm, an infliction which 

 is held to wipe out all but capital crimes. At this point I 

 must close. Other peculiarities of the Australian savage, 

 relating to his superstitions, his mode of procuring his food, of 

 cooking it, and of the laws which fix its consumption, and its 

 manufacture, would occupy too much of the time of the Society 

 for one evening. On a future occasion I hope to supplement 

 this paper by another and place before the Society some 

 particulars relating to tribes only recently met with in 



