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497 
Analyses of Books . 
“ The Lady Doctor” is a comical portrait of one of the cha- 
racteristic phenomena of the present day. “ Love versus 
Learning ” embodies the meditations of a maiden who had 
planned “to be a philosopher’s bride,” and with that view had 
become engaged to an Oxford examinee, and discovers his shal- 
lowness. 
“ He’s mastered the usual knowledge, 
And says it’s a terrible bore ; 
He formed his opinions at college, 
Then why should he think any more.” 
Our readers, if inclined to blame us for noticing this little col- 
lection of poems, are recommended to read it for themselves, 
when they will doubless give us a full pardon. 
Australian Aborigines. The Languages and Customs of several 
Tribes of Aborigines in the Western District of Victoria, 
Australia. By James Dawson. Melbourne, Sydney, and 
Australia : George Robertson. 
Considerable attention is now being paid in all parts of Aus- 
tralia to ethnological research, under the impression that if the 
opportunity is not at once taken the gradual decline of the native 
tribes will soon make the undertaking impossible. Even now it 
is difficult to sift the original ideas and beliefs of the “ black- 
fellows ” from such as have been acquired from the settlers. 
The author forms a very favourable opinion of the natives in 
many respects. He praises, e.g., their sanitary observances. 
They invariably bury all excrement in the earth at some distance 
from their dwellings, though their reason for this wise practice 
is based on superstition. It is a curious fact that a black louse 
which formerly infested the natives has disappeared, and the 
white louse of Europe has taken its place. The common flea 
was also not indigenous, — a fact to be weighed by those who 
maintain that such vermin have some important function to 
fulfil. 
The cleanliness of the natives must be taken in a relative 
sense, if we remember that they coat their bodies with a paste 
made of grease and red clay. As far as the tribes in question 
are concerned, we learn that “ the figures of human beings, ani- 
mals, and things now drawn by the natives, and represented as 
original in works on the aborigines of Victoria, were unknown to 
the tribes treated of, and are considered by them as of recent 
introduction by Europeans.” 
Concerning food they have a mixture of notions, some sensible 
and others exceedingly foolish. They are said “ never to touch 
