Page:An Australian language as spoken by the Awabakal.djvu/73

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(5.) In Chalda?a, the dead were not interred ; they were laid on mats in a brick vanlt or on a platform o£ sun-dried bricks, and over this a huge earthenware dish-cover, or in a long earthen jar in two pieces fitting into each other. Our blackfellows also, even when they do inter, are careful not to let the body touch the earth ; in some places, they erect stages for the dead — the Parsee "towers of vsilence"; elsewhere, they place the dead body in a hollow tree ; in South Australia, the corpse is desiccated by fire and smoke, then carried about for a while, and finally exposed on a stage. /Vll this corresponds with the Persian religious belief in the sacredness of the earth, which must not be contaminated by so foul a thing as a putrifying human body. And it shows also how diverse are our tribal customs in important matters.

(6.) The Dravidian tribes, though homoo;eneous, have twelve varying dialects. The Australian dialects are a parallel to that.

(7.) There is nothing improbable in the supposition that the first inhabitants of Australia came from the north-west, that is, from Hindostan or from Further India. Por the native tradi- tions of the Polynesians all point to the west or north-west as the quarter from which their ancestors first came. So also the Indias are to the north-west of our island.

(8.) I now quote Dr. Caldwell; in diverse places, he says: —

" The Puranas speak of the Nishadas as ' beings of the com- plexion of a charred stick, "svith flattened featui-es, and of dwarfish tature'; 'as black as a crow'; 'having pi'ojecting chin, broad ands flat nose, red eyes, and tawny hair, wide mouth, large ears, and a protuberant belly.' These Nishadas are the Kolarian tribes, such as the Kols and the Santals. But the Dravidians of the South have always been called Kalingas and Pandyas, not Nishadas."

" The Tudasof the Dekkan are a tine, manly, athletic race, with European features, Roman noses, hazel eyes, and great physical strength ; they have wavy or curly hair, while the people of the plains are straight haired, have black eyes, and aquiline noses. The skin of the Tudas, although they are mountaineers, is darker than that of the natives of the Malabar coast. The physical type of the Gondsis Mongolian, that of the other Dravidians is Aryan."

" In Shamanism, there is no regular priesthood. The father of the family is the priest and magician ; but the office can be taken by any one who pleases, and laid aside ; so also in Southern India. The Shamanites acknowledge a Supreme God, but offer him no worship, for he is too good to do them harm. So also the Dravidian demonolators. Neither the Shamanites nor the Dra- vidians believe in metempsychosis. The Shamanites worship only cruel demons, with bloody sacrifices and wild dances. The Tudas exclude women from worship, even from the temples ; they perform their rites in the deep gloom of groves. They have a supreme god, Usitru Swdmi ; his manifestation is ' light,' not

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