LUNATICS AND IDIOTS.

Idiots are rarely found amongst the natives; in two cases I however observed persons of very deficient intellect.  Mad people are unknown, and this very naturally, for very few freaks of madness could be committed by a lunatic ere he would fall a sacrifice to the violence and indignation of his fellows.  Persons of very delicate and feeble constitutions are also rare, as those who survive the hardships to which they are exposed in their childhood must possess an iron frame.  The deaths amongst the children, particularly during early infancy, are as far as I can judge much more numerous in proportion to the number of births than they are in civilized nations.

INFLUENCE OF POLYGAMY ON SOCIAL HABITS.

The social habits of the natives of Australia are necessarily modified by the extent to which polygamy is permitted and practised amongst them.  The very unequal distribution of the female sex, which arises from this cause, has rendered prevalent the custom of stealing wives; and as women are of great value, not only on account of the personal attachment which they might be supposed to excite, but from the fact of all laborious tasks being performed, and a great portion of the food of the family being also collected by them, every precaution is taken to prevent them from forming any acquaintances which would be likely to terminate in their abduction.

A stern and vigilant jealousy is commonly felt by every married man; he cannot, from the roving nature of their mode of life, surround his wives with the walls of a seraglio, but custom and etiquette have drawn about them barriers nearly as impassable.  When a certain number of families are collected together they encamp at a common spot; and each family has a separate hut, or perhaps two.  At these huts sleep the father of the family, his wives, the female children who have not yet joined their husbands, and very young boys; occasionally female relatives, who from some temporary cause have no male protector with them, also sleep at this fire; but the young men and boys of ten years old and upwards are obliged to sleep in their own portion of the encampment, where they themselves, or more generally, some of their mothers, build for them two or three huts, in which those related within certain degrees of consanguinity sleep together.

SOCIAL CUSTOMS.

When strangers are with a party upon a visit, if attended by their wives, they sleep in their own huts, which are placed among those of the married people; but if their wives are not with them, or if they are unmarried, they sleep at the fire of the young men.

MODE OF CONVERSATIONAL INTERCOURSE.  MODE OF RECITING EVENTS.