CAUSES OF ERROR IN FORMER ENQUIRERS.

Up to the present time we have had only very meagre vocabularies, collected by passing strangers, each of whom adopted his own system of orthography, and the comparisons formed from such compilations must necessarily have been erroneous in the highest degree.  Moreover in many instances these strangers were grossly imposed upon.  One gentleman published a vocabulary of the King George’s Sound dialect which has been largely quoted from by other writers; in this the numerals as high as ten are given, although the natives only count to four; and the translations of some words which he has put down as numbers are very humorous, such as:  What do you mean?  Get out, etc.

COMMON ORIGIN OF NATIVE POPULATION.

Many words spoken by the natives at Shark Bay are the same as those used by the natives at Perth, and the dialect in use in the Province of Victoria appears very nearly to assimilate to the latter, as is shown in the extracts from Mr. Moore’s journal at page 120.  Having thus traced the entire of the coastline of the continent of Australia, it appears that a language the same in root is spoken throughout this vast extent of country; and from the general agreement in this as well as in personal appearance, rites, and ceremonies, we may fairly infer a community of origin for the aborigines.  This being admitted, two other questions will arise.

How were they disseminated over the continent?

and

At what period, and from what quarter, did they arrive upon it?

CHAPTER 10.  THEIR TRADITIONAL LAWS.

ERRORS OF THEORETICAL WRITERS REGARDING THE SAVAGE STATE.

No question has, in as far as I can apprehend the subject, been so utterly misunderstood and misrepresented as the one relating to the customs and traditional laws of savage races.  Deistical writers and philosophers of great note but small experience have built up whole theories, and have either overturned or striven to overturn ancient faiths and wholesome laws by arguments deduced, in the first instance, from the consideration of man in his simple or savage state; and from false premises they have deduced, logically, argument from argument, until even the most unwilling have begun to doubt.

COMPLEX LAWS OF SAVAGE LIFE.

But to believe that man in a savage state is endowed with freedom either of thought or action is erroneous in the highest degree.  He is in reality subjected to complex laws which not only deprive him of all free agency of thought, but at the same time, by allowing no scope whatever for the development of intellect, benevolence, or any other great moral qualification, they necessarily bind him down in a hopeless state of barbarism from which it is impossible for man to emerge so long as he is enthralled by these customs; which, on the other hand, are so ingeniously devised as to have a direct tendency to annihilate any effort that is made to overthrow them.