Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/500

 468 Reviews.

the totemic groups has become more strongly emphasised, and the economical and magical aspect almost obliterated."

Now what is the interpretation of these differences ? Is it, as the authors think, that the Arunta customs are most nearly the original customs of the race, or are they the furthest in develop- ment ? As it may be thought that the nearer the coast the more likely would be the influence of foreign visitors, it is well to give the authors' words on this point. " If there be one thing," they remark, " which, more than any other, is strikingly true in regard to the present inhabitants of the continent, it is that, except to a very slight extent on the north-east, they have been uninfluenced by outside peoples. Even along the western side of the Gulf coast [of Carpentaria], where they are regularly visited by Malays, intercourse with the latter seems to have had no effect whatever upon them, in the matter of their customs, beliefs, and personal appearance. Except, apparently, so far as securing, in return for tortoiseshell, &c., certain things which they want from the Malays, they hold aloof from the latter. One reads of Malay influence in these parts, but our experience was that practically no such thing exists." This testimony is emphatic, and in the absence of definite and specific evidence to the contrary must be held conclusive.

The possibility of outside influence being cleared away, we must look in another direction to find the causes of evolution ; for evolution there has admittedly been in one direction or the other. The country occupied by the Arunta is a barren waste of steppes, arising from the low-lying lands around Lake Eyre, and crossed at irregular intervals by ranges of mountains occasionally reaching a height of 5,000 feet. That of the Warramunga is similar, though perhaps some portion of it, such as the Macdonnell and Murchison Ranges (which are the strongholds of the southern portion of the Warramunga), are more favourable for human life. Northward, however, of the Warramunga there is a change. The scanty vegetation of the higher steppes gives way to more vivid scrub; and west of the Ashburton Range there is a long chain of waterpools. From this point the authors diverged to the north-east over plains intersected by numerous watercourses, many or most of them dry, or containing only pools. These pools, however, were alive with birds, and