Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/118

 animal but the dog of the forest. Flat stones to pound the gathered seeds were in use both in Western Australia, Victoria, and other places far removed from them. They could supply their needs, but they were sometimes indolent in doing so. Their stone hatchets were like those found in Europe. They were not perforated, but the handle was secured to them by various devices. To sharpen them gave toil for months. The tribes flourished best and were larger, and individuals amongst them were finer, where game was most abundant, or fish in sea or river furnished wholesome change of diet. In the most barren tracks they have been seen reduced to the verge of starvation, and under such trials the race would dwindle. But the opossum seldom failed them. It was almost as ubiquitous as themselves. Before white men disturbed the hunting-grounds the natives had no difficulty in procuring food.

From whatever quarter of the world they imported their ceremonial law, their intricate system of family distinctions, and their laws of food, they implicitly obeyed them throughout the continent. Their oneness of origin could not be doubted. The variations were but matters of detail, due to accidents. They did not tattoo like the Pacific islanders. They never marred the face, but raised with great care cicatrices which ridged their bodies. The scars, borne with pride in chosen pattern, were different on the men from those on the women. Every man had a family or class name, and could not marry a woman of that designation. Betrothals were early made, and always subject to the family distinctions. It may be doubted whether a girl ever attained the age of seven without having been betrothed within her tribe, in subjection to its marriage laws. The death of the husband transferred his widows to his brother of the same class-name. The children inherited the class-name of the mother. The name by which men and women were addressed was not the class, but an individual, name. The distinguishing class-names varied in different districts, but the system was the same. The individual name was frequently given with reference to the