ficant enough; the world is not
much the poorer for the loss of a parcel of boomerangs, spears, fur
string, and skin rugs. But when we pass from the custom in this its
feeble source and follow it as it swells in volume through the nations
of the world till it attains the dimensions of a mighty river of wasted
labour, squandered treasure, and spilt blood, we cannot but wonder at
the strange mixture of good and evil in the affairs of mankind, seeing
in what we justly call progress so much hardly earned gain side by side
with so much gratuitous loss, such immense additions to the substantial
value of life to be set off against such enormous sacrifices to the
shadow of a shade.

[Footnote 160: W. E. Roth, _North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No.
5, Superstition, Magic, and Medicine_ (Brisbane, 1903), pp. 18, 23,
Secs. 68, 83.]

[Footnote 161: Homer, _Odyssey_, xix. 163.]

[Footnote 162: W. E. Roth, _ll. cc._]

[Footnote 163: W. E. Roth, _North Queensland Ethnography, Bulletin No.
5_ (Brisbane, 1903), p. 29. Sec. 116.]

[Footnote 164: W. E. Roth. _op. cit._ p. 18, Sec. 68.]

[Footnote 165: W. E. Roth, _op. cit._ pp. 17, 29, Secs. 65, 116.]

[Footnote 166: W. E. Roth, _op. cit._ p. 17, Sec. 65.]

[Footnote 167: J. Dawson, _Australian Aborigines_ (Melbourne, Sydney,
and Adelaide, 1881), pp. 110 _sq._; A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of
South-East Australia_ (London, 1904), p. 442.]

[Footnote 168: A. W. Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 445.]

[Footnote 169: (Sir) George Grey, _Journals of Two Expeditions of
Discovery in North-West and Western Australia_ (London, 1841), i.
301-303.]

[Footnote 170: Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins, _An Account of the
English Colony in New South Wales_, Second Edition (London, 1804), p.
354.]

[Footnote 171: Rev. G. Taplin, "The Narrinyeri," in _Native Tribes of
South Australia_ (Adelaide, 1879), pp. 18 _sq._]

[Footnote 172: Rev. G. Taplin, "The Narrinyeri," _op. cit._ pp. 20
_sq._]

[Footnote 173: Rev. G. Taplin, _op. cit._ p. 20.]

[Footnote 174: Rev. G. Taplin, _op. cit._ pp. 19 _sq._, 21.]

[Footnote 175: Rev. G. Taplin, _op. cit._ p. 21.]

[Footnote 176: See below, pp. 235 _sqq._, 327 _sq._]

[Footnote 177: Rev. G. Taplin, _op. cit._ p. 21.]

[Footnote 178: Spencer and Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_,
pp. 538 _sq._]

[Footnote 179: Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central
Australia_, pp. 544 _sq._]

[Footnote 180: A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-E