Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/144

 continent. The islanders speedily obtained dogs after the arrival of the English in 1803.

Like the Australian, the Tasmanian natives shrank from naming their departed friends; and often, if the deceased person had borne the name of an animal, or tree, or locality, they invented a new word to describe the object.

No sound like that of the letter "s" was contained in either vocabulary.

Most observers remarked that there was no trace of religious usage in Tasmania, but a dread of evil spirits. But Clark, long a catechist among the natives herded at Flinders' Island after capture, testified that "the greater portion, but not all of them, believed that they were to live after the body died." It may be that, as in Australia, the relics of their religious cult were enshrined in the ceremonies which they observed. "If," said Father Clark (as the natives called him), "so few die joyfully blessing God, are they singular in that respect? The last words of one who died at Flinders' Island were, 'Lord Jesus Christ, come and take me to Thyself.' This was in the hearing of the greater portion of the people who are yet alive. He was a good man." Clark himself shed tears of joy when relating the happy deaths of some of his dark disciples. The race was therefore not incapable of religious impressions or of prayer.

Like their neighbours they believed in sorcery, and are said to have believed in necromancy, but there is no record of their traditions; nor can there ever be, for the last of them, Truganini, died in 1876. Some of the white invaders saw the whole race disappear, and fragments of ill-compiled vocabularies are all that remain to tell of a people which has passed away.

The great possession—fire—was procured at will by the Tasmanians in the same manner as by the Australians. Both of them ascended trees by notching the bark. It was not strange that viewing the space from notch to notch, and not seeing the men who used them, Tasman conjectured that they were a race of giants.