necessity, when they always carry a firebrand to intimidate
the monster.”
We are assured by Mr. Wilkes that Australian children
are in general equal to English children in their manifestations
of intellect.#
S e c t io n l l l .—MoraL State o f the Australians.—JSthno-
graphical Traits.
The Australians are generally considered to be at least one
of the most degraded and savage races in the • world, and
some writers have represented them as scarcely endowed with
reason. M. Bory de St. Vincent imagines in their-very aspect
<( a most deplorable resemblance to the physiognomy of the
Mandril.” “ II n’y manque,” he adds, “ que ces rides latêr
rales, et les couleurs vives dont laj^ature semblfeiséiplairè à
enlaider encore les grands singes ; mais comme si l’Austra-
lasien eût envié ces bizarres attributs, il emprunte de l’art les
teintes que la nature lui réfusa. Il barbouille ses pommettes
proéminentes, son front, la pointe de son nez légèrement
aquilin, et son menton carré, avec une terre d ?un rouge de
sang.” “ Les plus bruts des hommes, les derniers sortis des
mains de la nature, sans religion, sans lois, sans arts, vitfans
misérablement par couples, totalement étrangers à l'état
social, les Australasiens n’ont pas la moindre idée de leur
nudité.’!?*,“ On ne leur connaît pas d’habitations ; pas même
de tentes. A peine, lorsqu’ils allument du feu pour faire
cuire des coquillages, se forment-ils un abri du côté du vent
avec quelques branchages grossièrement assemblés, et qui ne
sauraient les garantir de -la pluie, à laquelle ils démeurent
exposés avec une résignation stupide. L’arc tout simple qu’il
est leur est inconnu : ils n’ont d’autres armes que de longues
piques, si des perches à peine dressées peuvent mériter ce
* Two Australian boys, now in this country, were lately exhibited at the
Ethnological Society in London. Their faculties appeared quite as acute as
those of white boys of the same age, and they are said to be just as capable
of receiving instruction. They, have very much the aspect- of Negro boys,
are equally black, but have long bushy hair.
nom. Ils employent aussi des massues fort courtes ou casses-
têtes, et des très petits boucliers.”
Captain Gray,-to whom we are indebted perhaps more than
to any other writer for information respecting the native tribes
of Australia, and who, being well acquainted with their language
and habits, is most worthy of reliance, has given us a
very different view from that commonly entertained of the
character ofethe Australian savages. According to Captain
Gray the brutalised state in which they are found to exist is
not the permanent result of naturally defective reason, but
the incidental effect of a complex and , artfully contrived
system of-customs and institutions, which, though injurious
in their tendency clearly evince the possession and exercise
o#iïteHeet««L faculties.-^ complex laws, which- not only
deprive the Australian of all ffee agency of thought, but at
the same time, by allowing no scope whatever for the deve.-
lopement of any great .moral: qualification, necessarily bind
him down to; aïïhopdesis state of barbarism, from which it is
impossible for him to emerge while these laws are so ingeniously
devised as to have a direef tendency to annihilate any
effort to overthrow them/’ The laws to which Mr. Gray
alluies are a very complicated; safe of regulations for marriage
and the constitution o f society < One remarkable xiyeumstance
is the universality of these ideas.; « They cannot be considered
as local institutions, because the same customs and
traditional laws are found to regulate the conduct of the
Australian tribes on one side in the northern provinces of
New South Wales, and on the other near the western coast.
Captain Gray says he has ascertained the existence of the
same, customs which are known to prevail on the Murrum-
bidgee not only on the western coast, but in several other
parts of New Holland. Throughout the Australian continent
the same laws are prevalent, and this is the more remarkable,
as the only depository and exposition of them is in mere oral
tradition.*
One of the most remarkable facts connected with these observations
is that the Australians are divided into certain great