253 



those living near the coast, which is not difficult to understand 

 when their secluded manner of life is considered. An analogy 

 may be found in the South Sea Islands, where the language and 

 customs on some of the isolated and remote islands are often 

 identical, whilst intermediate places inhabited by tlie same I'ace 

 have altered considerably. 



It can, therefore, scarcely be credited that these rites should 

 have had their origin in tlie arid interior, and it is justly presum- 

 able that at one time all tribes practised these rites alike, but 

 that they fell into disuse along the coast, where life is more 

 variable, when the tribes increased in numbers : but were scrupu- 

 lously retained amongst the less expanding tribes of the interior. 



Whence and how the aborigines came to Australia is as yet a 

 problem veiled in obscurity, and, tlierefore, for me to speculate 

 upon it at present would be too venturesome; it is to be hoped, 

 however, that the steadily-advancing progress of ethnological and 

 anthropological knowledge will find the proper clue to it, and 

 bring its solution before the natural conditions of the aborigines 

 are entirely disturbed or the race has vanished. 



Water and Food Supply. 



The western interior of Australia being entirely devoid of 

 rivers and permanent creeks and almost of any other permanent 

 water, the tribes injiabiting this region have to depend upon the 

 occasional rainfalls and thunderstorms for their water supply. 



In favorable seasons, no doubt, many large claypans and tem- 

 porary running streams afibrd ample opportunities of securing 

 this necessity ; but during continued dry seasons they have to 

 depend solely upon " rock-holes" and " native wells." The rock- 

 holes seem to be almost a special characteristic of this portion of 

 Australia, and without them it would be impossible for the 

 natives to exist. They are mostly found in granite, a softer 

 mass ()!■ nodule having been weathered away, thus forming 

 of various shapes and dimensions. Some of 

 many thousand gallons when filled, and as 

 the water cannot escape by percolation the supply will last 

 for a long time. To prevent animals getting at the water, 

 niost of the rock-holes are partly or entirely filled with loose-lying 

 sticks, which practice, necessary as it may be to save the water, 

 deteriorates its quality considerably by making it often look quite 

 black and giving it a fetid smell and taste. Coming to a rock- 

 hole once some of the camels drank, and one of them micturated 

 on the rock ; the flow was prevented from getting into the 

 water by some of the blacks placing handfuls of earth quickly in 

 front of it. They behaved in a very excited way at the prospect 

 of liaving their water polluted, which contrasts rather favorably 



natural cisterns 

 them will hold 



