236 On the Condition and Prospects 



the clouds and never die. Of these superior powers, the Father, 

 who is omnipotent, and of a benevolent character, created the earth 

 and its various objects. The Nooreele are joined by the souls 

 (literally shadows) of men after death, and they are thenceforth 

 immortal.* 



Social Institutions. — Strzelecki observes there are three social 

 gradations or classes among the aborigines. These successive steps 

 are attained through age and fidelity to the tribe. The highest class, 

 consisting commonly of the aged few, is the only one that is initiated 

 into the religious mysteries, and the regulation of the affairs of the 

 tribe. The meetings of this class are of a sacred and secluded cha- 

 racter. On one of these occasions, he himself was warned off from 

 the vicinity, and could not, without personal danger, have approached 

 within ten miles of the meeting. 



The aborigines are divided into a number of tribes, some much 

 more numerous than others, but the greatest of them seldom con- 

 sisting of more than two or three hundred individuals. But these 

 tribes, whether large or small, weak or powerful, are always perfectly 

 distinct, separate from and independent of one another, each inhabit- 

 ing a tract of country of its own. The general control and manage- 

 ment of their affairs appears to be, by mutual consent, in the hands 

 of the adult males respectively of each tribe. 



Manners and Customs. — The result of this exclusive feeling is a 

 narrowness of mind, arising from inexperience and want of informa- 

 tion. Each tribe denominates as " wild black fellows" all others who 

 are beyond the limits of its acquaintance. Every stranger who pre- 

 sents himself uninvited among them, incurs the penalty of death. 

 This sanguinary custom is traceable to a superstitious belief that the 

 death of any member of a tribe is occasioned by the hand of some 

 enemy, who has come upon him unawares ; and hence any stranger 

 found in the camp is suspected of being upon this hostile mission. 

 So general is this exclusive and hostile feeling, says Mr Thomas, that 

 measures should be adopted to prevent any parties from taking blacks 

 out of their own districts. 



This belief or superstition has originated the practice, on the oc- 

 casion of a death in the tribe, of sacrificing some individual of a 

 neighbouring tribe, who is supposed to be the murderer. The plan 



, — __ 1 1 _ __ 



* The description given by the aborigines of their religious ideas appear 

 vague and undefined, and different among the separate tribes. In pursuing in- 

 quiries on this subject, there must be great difficulty on both sides in compre- 

 hending the precise nature, both of the questions and the answers. The caves 

 and paintings discovered by Captain Grey are a curious circumstance in the 

 religious indications of the aborigines, and betoken more of system and reflec- 

 tion in their minds than might be expected from their appearance and general 

 characteristics. — (See Mr Hull's " Remarks" p. 28, where sketches of the paint- 

 ings are given.) 



