SOME REMARKS ON THE AUSTRALIAN LANGUAGES. 237 



tinued from generation to generation, I have no doubt that their 

 whole position would be altered ; but any final separation from 

 their ancestral habits would lead to their speedy extinction as a 

 race ; this was the issue that was rapidly approaching after the 

 last remnants of the Tasmanians were removed to Flinders' Island. 

 But for many hundreds of years, no one can tell how many, the 

 Australian race, has lived in the midst of adverse surroundings, 

 tribe warring against tribe, each tribe restricted to its own boun- 

 daries, the supply of food in our precarious climate often scanty, 

 the paralysing terror produced by their strong belief in the super- 

 natural power of demons and of their own wizards, the ravages of 

 waves of disease and death sweeping over them from time to time; 

 all these and other causes compelled them to think only of their 

 daily subsistence and the preservation of their lives, fixed and 

 deepened their degradation, and prevented even the possibility 

 of amelioration and elevation. The natives of the South Sea 

 islands, whose lot has been a fairer one, have had many yams 

 and cocoa-nuts and bananas and other things to count, and so 

 have developed a wide system of numbers ; but our poor black- 

 fellows, whose only personal property is a few spears or so, 

 have not felt it necessary to speak of more than 'one,' ' two ' or 

 'three' objects at once. Then, as to the linguistic question on 

 which Sir John Lubbock builds his charge, I think it could be 

 shown that even the Aryan system of numbers — -the most highly 

 developed system of any — is founded on the words for 'one,' 'two/ 

 'three,' and no more, all the rest being combinations of these by 

 addition or by multiplication. Further, the Aryans have singular 

 and dual forms for nouns and pronouns, that is, they have num- 

 ber-forms for ' one ' and ' two,' but all the rest beyond that is 

 included in the general name of plural, that is 'more'; indeed the 

 Sanskrit uses its word for £ four ' in a general way to mean a con- 

 siderable number, exactly as to our blackfellows all else beyond 

 two or three is bula, 'many.' For these reasons I think that 

 this charge against our blackfellows ought to be laid on better 

 ground than that afforded by their numerals. 



4. The numeral ' one." 1 



(a). Of the words for ' one,' I take up first that which is least 

 common, pir 'one.' And here I beg to say that, like other inves- 

 tigators, I have to depend upon the accuracy of others for the 

 facts quoted. I have not been in the districts where the word 

 pir is used, and so cannot verify the word for myself, but I have 

 no doubt it is correctly given as a word for 'one.' I am respon- 

 sible only for the arguments I draw from the evidence produced 

 in this inquiry. So far as T know, these arguments have never 

 been ad vanced previously; for my practice is to form my own opin- 



