398 
DIALECTS. 
Upon comparison of the different dialects given 
in the two foregoing tables, and which comprise an 
extent of country, embracing fully one half of the 
continent of Australia, it will be apparent that a 
sufficient degree of resemblance exists to justify the 
conclusion, that they were derived from one and the 
same original. It is true, that in many respects, 
there are sometimes even radical differences in 
some of the words of various dialects ; but as 
Captain Grey judiciously remarks, if the comparison 
in such cases be extended, and the vocabulary of 
each enlarged, there will always be found points of 
resemblance, either in the dialects compared, or in 
some intermediate dialect, which will bear out the 
conclusion assumed. # This view is still further 
strengthened, by including in the comparison the 
weapons, habits, customs, and traditions, of the 
various tribes. 
It must be admitted, however, that where the 
languages spoken by two tribes, appear to differ 
greatly, there is no key common to both, or by 
which a person understanding one of them 
thoroughly, could in the least degree make out the 
other, although an intimate acquaintance with one 
dialect and its construction, would undoubtedly 
* I may here refer to a curious mathematical calculation, 
by Dr. Thomas Young, to the effect, that if three words coincide 
in two different languages, it is ten to one they must be derived 
in both cases from some parent language, or introduced in some 
other manner. “Six words would give more,” he says, “ than 
seventeen hundred to one, and eight near 100,000 ; so that in 
these cases, the evidence would be little short of absolute cer- 
tainty.” — Vestiges of the Creation, p. 302. 
