THE AUSTRALIAN BLACKS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12637, 26 October 1905, Page 2

THE AUSTRALIAN BLACKS.

Mr J. G. Frazer, the well-known an--tihiropologist, continues in the " Fort--.oighkly Review " ihis studies of the re•*cenl> works of Messrs Spencer and tril4en and Mr A, W. Howitt on the na--fcive tribes of Australia. One of his is that, judged either by -*heir social organisation or by their subsßtbitution of magio for religion, the ceni%ral tribes axe more backward than, the «ooasbal 3 and the progress amongst them spread from the .sea to 'the interior;. This Ms, as lie would have supposed, from the abundamce of water -and food on stibe coast compared with the parched jamd barren table-lands of the inferior, '^us, 'he says, even among the rude Ravages of Australia we can detect the <eperafcion of those natural laws which liave ordained that elsewhere all the .ggreat civilisations of the world should ■©rise in -well-watered and fertile lands -within the atmospheric influence of the «sea. But- dt is not merely by starving ■^fclbe" vitai energies and oramping the in--telligence of the Taee that Central Aus"tanaliam conditions have operated. They jhiave caused also the prevalent and pre"pcsteirous beliefs dn these tribes of •magic. Where, natu<sQ as uniform and %inaly magic (of .thris sdhooi^is little re*eorted to. And tie more extreme, yioilent, and perplexing are the operations *of nature "the more magic is likely to be to 'by the Ravage. Nowhere in -the world are. the alterations of the "eeasotns so sudden, and the contrasts be--tweem tihem co violent, as in the desert Central Australia. The wonderful -change which passes over the face of -nature after t>he first rains of the sea®on has been compared, even by European observers, to 'the effect of magic. "IVhat marvel then that the savage (should mistake it for such in very -truth? It is just when there is promise *«fa good season that the natives aire -wont to perform their magical cereimonies for "the multiplication of tlhe -plants and animals which they use as food. Can we wonder, asks Mr Frazer, '" that 'tihe accomplishment of their -wishes when it follows appears to them -as a conclusive proof of the efficacy of -their incantations. Nature herself seems •4o conspire to foster the delusion."