Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/135

 Maker of All, as a ray of true light which has passed down through many generations, may well suggest to their Christian fellow-countrymen, that this branch of the family of man has been from the beginning an object of our Heavenly Father's preserving mercy."

It would be presumptuous in any one observer to pronounce dogmatically on such a subject. But long acquaintance with the perishing race, and frequent conversations with them on their mysteries, lead the author to believe that Mr. Ridley was right—that waning tradition of the Creator survived more or less in memory, and that the rites and ceremonies preserved amongst the Australians were the relics of a cult carried to the continent by the ancestors of the nomads who were roaming over it when the English took possession.

By ordinary observers who never sought to penetrate the inner mind of the race they were deemed absolutely without religious ideas, but their dread of evil spirits was recognized. Without doubt much of the religious belief held by the first voyagers from the Arafura Sea was dissipated in the course of ages of dispersion. That the race was of one origin is capable of proof by language and many ceremonies. That those ceremonies were remnants of the ritual of the decayed religion can hardly be doubted. Nor are the Australians the only instance in which incrustations of forms have been allowed to stifle the essence of religion among men. The vine, which in their native woods climbs over and eventually strangles the life of a tree, and stands proudly in its stead, is a fit emblem of the Australian