Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

INHABITANTS OF AUSTRALIA. 877earth in quest of a few roots and of a little muddy water. Tribes are even saidto exist which, together with their dogs, have adapted themselves to the use ofsea-water.The finest natives wei'e those ofthe east coast, where a more beneficent naturesupplied food and water in abundance, including, however, certain articles of dietcalculated to excite the astonishment and loathing of Europeans. Thus VonLendenfeld tells us that Mount Bogong takes its name from the grubs which theaborigines here collected in myriads for their daily meals.Although numbering but a few thousand souls, the Australian race is dividedinto hundreds of tribal groups. In certain districts there are as many languagesas communities or scattered family circles. In others, again, the native idiomspresent great uniformity throughout considerable tracts of country. Thus fromthe banks of the Hawkesbury to Moreton Bay, a distance of aboiit 350 miles, thenatives have little difficulty in conversing together ; so, also, those of thesouth-west coast, between Hamalin Bay and King George Sound, speak closelyrelated dialects. Another extensive linguistic zone comprises the whole regionbetween Cooper's Creek and the Middle Darling, a space of over 40,000 squaremiles, and this surprising uniformity of speech is attributed to the extreme drynessof the land, which obliges the tribes to gather round the watering-places in summer,suspending all hostilities, and for the time being merging, as it were, in acommon nationality.On the other hand, the tribes of the Lower Darling, where there is never anylack of water or vegetation, have been able to keep aloof for long ages, and theirlanguages have consequentl}' become greatly diversified.The fact is evident fromthe very names of the different peoples in this region, all of which have exactlythe same meaning, though often differing altogether in form.Such are the Baraba-Barabas, the Wati-Watis, the Waiki-Waikis, the Lichi-Lichis, the Darti-Dartis,the Yari-Yaris—terms meaning "No-No," just as by an analogous mental processmediaeval France was divided into the Langue d'Oui and the Langue d'Oc. Therapid divergence of the local dialects is also partly due to the respect paid to thedead requiring the survivors to taboo for a time, and even for ever, a large numberof words which bore or seemed to bear a certain relation to the deceased eitherin sound or sense.But, however they may differ from each other outwardly, all the native idiomspresent some common points of resemblance. They are polys3-llabic and agglutinatingby means of harmonious suffixes abounding in vowels. Aspirates areslightly developed, the sibilants are completely absent, and the accent falls usuallyon the penultimate syllable.Onomatopoeic terms are very common, and all objectsperceived by the senses are indicated by numerous synonyms, or at least by whatpass as such amongst strangers interrogating the natives.But on the other hand,these primitive tongues are extremel}^ poor in abstract expressions, as well as in thenames of numerals. Scarcely any appear to have distinct terms for more thanone or fico, while probably none of the tribes can count beyond five.In the absence of accurate knowledge attempts have been made to classify the