110 
Vocabulary of 
Ao-aiii, to the barbarians themselves, as it has been 
well remarked, all the truth, or at least all the intelli¬ 
gibility, of the Christian dispensation depends upon the 
fact of an original pair, from whom tliey, as we, are de¬ 
scended ; and it is not an unimportant achievement of 
the philologist, to decipher for them their title to the 
inheritance, by tracing their origin in that of their 
language, the only monument of sufficient antiquity that 
remains. 
A little work, entitled “ Outlines of a Grammar, Vo¬ 
cabulary, and Phraseology of the Aboriginal Language of 
South Australia, spoken by the Natives in and for some 
distance around Adelaide. J3y C. G. Tciclielmann and 
C. W. Schiirmann, of the Lutheran Missionary Society, 
Dresden. Adelaide : published by the Authors, at the 
Native Location, 1840,” furnishes whatever facts may 
give value to the following illustrations of these prefatory 
remarks. The authors are German missionaries in South 
Australia, a colony distinguished, above all others, for 
the enlightened efforts made by these, and men like 
these, to carry through the often abandoned experiment 
of supporting the Aborigines against the hurtful influence 
of civilized manners and institutions.* 
One essential step towards avoiding the failure which 
has hitherto attended every attempt of the kind, is to 
place ourselves mentally in the position in which we find 
the savages, whom we would exalt to an equality with 
ourselves. For this purpose we will study the list, of 
ideas in their vocabulary. 
It is hardly four years since the men of the country 
now called South Australia were awakened from a long 
night of forgetfulness by the advent of the Pinde-meyu , 
* Since the above was written, a further kindness has been con¬ 
ferred from the same quarter, in the addition of notes upon several 
parts of this paper, which will be distinguished by the initial T. 
