Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/39

 The Forerunners ADELAIDE AND VICINITY opportunity of close observation will be gone, for the Exterminator has immolated nearly all. Contrary to the general opinion, their customs and habits offer supremely interesting matter for study. There is much in them- circumcision, mutilation, marriage, burial, etc. — which resembles the customs of the ancient Jews, the rites of African negroes, and the habits and beliefs of aboriginal races in other parts of the world. I'^ew peoples have secured less scientific attention, and the omission is almost a slur on the honor of the Briti-sh student. In communication with each other the Australian natives had a system of signs and codes as comprehensive, because more universally utilised, as the noble brotherhood of Freemasons. By raising the hands to the ears and lips, and by other rapid, mystic signs, messages of peculiar significance were conveyed without waste of words. These were as aptly understood in Western Australia as in New South Wales and South Group of South Australian Aborigines Australia, and varied but little. They knew nothing of writing, of agriculture, or of building houses and ships. There was not much greater difference between the languages spoken in different parts of Australia than between the dialects of English counties and German provinces. The roots of the words were generally the same all over the continent. The sound of their chattering in their camps was pleasing. Many of their words were exceedingly tuneful, because of the prominence given to vowels. When recounting the incidents of the hunt, or any other of the episodes of their day, they seldom adhered to the prosaic form of ordinary narrative, but gradually had recourse to poetry, and chanted with extraordinary vigor. Battles, hunting scenes, death celebrations, long tramps — all were rendered into song and poetry. Pretty were the vowel cadences, and sweet was the effect of rude dirges and chants carried by the wind over hill and creek and scrub to a distant