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 132 AUSTRALIA shelter from the wind. Whether they knew the use of fire is uncertain ; they now kindle fires by rubbing two dry sticks together. But Australian Man and Woman. (From Photographs.) they frequently eat their food raw, and their cooking is performed by making a hole in the ground, lighting a fire in it, putting in the slain animal, and covering it with earth until the fire is out, when it is considered sufficiently cooked. In the wild districts they go entirely naked ; in the vicinity of settlements they wear sheepskins, or the blankets and clothing dis- tributed to them by the settlers. They have not the use of the bow, but are expert with the spear, which they fling TO or 80 yards with the greatest nicety. They use the club or waddy ; and they have the boomerang, a Aboriginal Shelters. peculiar missile, resembling a double-edged wooden sword, bent to an ellipse ; on being thrown into the air it strikes the ground at a distance and rebounds toward the thrower. The several tribes are engaged in frequent feuds with each other, but are not usually courageous in the presence of the whites. In the early times of the colony, however, they frequently exhibited great pertinacity in their attacks on out-stations. Their temper is gener- ally pacific and friendly. Their numbers are very limited ; the highest recent estimate is 50,000, and even this is probably much over the mark. The use of ardent spirits has made great ravages among them. They are subject to cutaneous diseases, attributable to their ex- tremely filthy habits. They are polygamists, and their marriages are entirely without cere- mony, the bridegroom merely carrying away the bride, with or without her consent. Their burials, on the contrary, are accompanied by certain superstitious observances ; the dead are buried in the exact places in which they died, and these spots are never inhabited again by members of the dead men's tribe. The names of the dead are never pronounced, and those bearing the same names are obliged to change them. Their religious opinions are simple ; they believe in a good and a bad spirit. They believe that white men are the reanimated souls of blacks. Many efforts for their conversion to Christianity have been made, but without permanent success. All the colonial governments keep up native schools. In New South Wales a black police was at one time formed, whose services were very valuable in tracking depredators, from their native skill in following a trail. Some few of the blacks are occasionally employed as stockmen or shepherds ; but they are, like all savages, averse to regular labor of any kind. They are rapidly decreasing in number, and in a few decades will probably be almost ex- tinct. The political divisions of Australia, the dates of their official organization as colonies, their areas (chiefly estimated), and their pop- ulation in 1871, are as follows: DIVISIONS. Date of Organi- zation. Area in square miles. Population in 1871. 1788 823,487 501,611 Victoria 1851 88,681 729,868 1S86 383,828 188,995 1859 678.000 115.567 1829 978,000 24,785 Northern Territory (not yet or- 523,681 201 Xotal 2,978,127 1,561,027 The rapid growth of the colonies may be seen from the fact that New South Wales in 1821 only numbered 29,783 inhabitants ; Victoria in 1836,224; South Australia in 1838, 6,000. The majority of the inhabitants of each colony are of British descent ; the number of natives of Germany is 9,000 in New South Wales, with a smaller number in the other colonies. The number of Chinese is about 70,000 (17,000 in Victoria), and it is steadily increasing. The