Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/112

 As soon as Governor Phillip had established communication, the natives comprehended his position of authority, and gave him the highest title known in their language, derived from the creative Spirit, and associated with age and the respect due to it. They then looked upon the invaders as prompted and controlled by the venerabile nomen of the ruler, and invited the officers to be present even at their secret ceremonies, to which in after years they would admit none but their most cherished friends.

There is sufficient similarity between many language-roots throughout the continent to prove, if it were needed, a common origin. The word for "eye" and the word for "foot," in a land where existence depended so much upon sight, and upon tracking enemies or game, have, as might have been expected, a close likeness in far-distant spots. The pronouns also betokened generally a common stock. The numerals in use were limited. In some tribes only three were at command, in most there were four. For the number "five" a word signifying "many" was resorted to. This poverty proved that Australian tribes derived no aid from the great Polynesian family which spread from the Sandwich Islands to those of New Zealand, where denary enumeration prevailed, and the Maori could count in thousands.

But their migration must be ascribed to another source than the Pacific, or must have preceded the appearance of the sea-kings of Hawaii and their island conquests. It would appear that in the hills of the Deccan are to be found the nearest kindred of the dark race which was expelled from Hindostan, which finds to this day holes in which to hide in Ceylon and in islands afterwards conquered by the Malays, and which spread undisturbed by persecution over the broad lands of Australia. That the Deccan tribes speak a Turanian dialect might be credited on the authority of Prof. Max Müller if it were not accepted by others. Prof. Huxley concludes, "from description," that the people are "undistinguishable from the Australian races."

The learned Sir W. W. Hunter informs us that the Dravidian tribes were forced southwards in Hindostan,