Aborigines of Victoria Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- LANGUAGE
- APPENDICES
- A Notes and Anecdotes of the Aborigines of Australia, by Philip Chauncy, J.P., District Surveyor at Ballarat
- B Traditions of the Australian Aborigines on the Namoi, Barwan, and other Tributaries of the Darling, communicated by the Rev. William Ridley, M.A., &c.
- C Notes on the Natives of Australia, by Albert A. C. Le Souëf
- D Notes on the Aborigines of Cooper's Creek, by Alfred W. Howitt, F.G.S., P.M. and Warden, Bairnsdale
- E Notes relating to the Aborigines of Australia, by the late John Moore Davis
- F Notes on the System of Consanguinity and Kinship of the Brabrolong Tribe, North Gippsland, by A. W. Howitt, F.G.S., P.M. and Warden, Bairnsdale
- G Notes on the Language and Customs of the Tribe inhabiting the country known as Kotoopna, by William Locke
- H Hunting the Blacks, by the late A. F. A. Greeves
- I The Crania of the Natives, by Professor Halford, of the Melbourne University
- THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA
- INDEX
- Plate section
E - Notes relating to the Aborigines of Australia, by the late John Moore Davis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- LANGUAGE
- APPENDICES
- A Notes and Anecdotes of the Aborigines of Australia, by Philip Chauncy, J.P., District Surveyor at Ballarat
- B Traditions of the Australian Aborigines on the Namoi, Barwan, and other Tributaries of the Darling, communicated by the Rev. William Ridley, M.A., &c.
- C Notes on the Natives of Australia, by Albert A. C. Le Souëf
- D Notes on the Aborigines of Cooper's Creek, by Alfred W. Howitt, F.G.S., P.M. and Warden, Bairnsdale
- E Notes relating to the Aborigines of Australia, by the late John Moore Davis
- F Notes on the System of Consanguinity and Kinship of the Brabrolong Tribe, North Gippsland, by A. W. Howitt, F.G.S., P.M. and Warden, Bairnsdale
- G Notes on the Language and Customs of the Tribe inhabiting the country known as Kotoopna, by William Locke
- H Hunting the Blacks, by the late A. F. A. Greeves
- I The Crania of the Natives, by Professor Halford, of the Melbourne University
- THE ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA
- INDEX
- Plate section
Summary
It is the fashion among many persons to speak of the Australian Aborigines in terms of the greatest contempt, as being far below us in every qualification, both mental and physical; and no doubt the degraded creatures met loafing about the bush public-houses deserve all that may be said of them; but experience teaches that it is no more fair to judge the whole of the Aborigines by the specimens alluded to than it would be to judge the Celt or Anglo-Saxon races by the police reports, or the scum met with in the haunts of vice and infamy; and those persons who have seen much of the blacks in the early days of these colonies can recall many instances of chivalrous daring, benevolence, and patient endurance of hardship and suffering, which perhaps may yet, in the hands of some Australian Cooper, “serve to point a moral or adorn a tale.”
That the whole of the blacks scattered over the Australian continent believe in a future state is indisputable; for go where you will–east or west, north or south–you will still find them strong in the belief that though they will die, they will rise again in the flesh, stronger, aye, and wiser than ever.
Their mode of disposing of the bodies of deceased persons differs in various localities.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Aborigines of VictoriaWith Notes Relating to the Habits of the Natives of Other Parts of Australia and Tasmania Compiled from Various Sources for the Government of Victoria, pp. 310 - 322Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1878