--to own property or to
marry,--he is put through some cabalistic rites the nature of which they
will not divulge. The initiation ceremony ends, however, by the aspirant
having one of his front teeth knocked out, or broken off close to the
gum. This is accomplished by means of a sharp blow from a stone shaped
for the purpose. After this deforming process is accomplished, the youth
is pronounced to be eligible to all the rights and privileges of the
elders of his tribe. Any of these aborigines, therefore, whom you meet
is sure to be minus a front tooth. By the bye, it is all important that
this tooth-smashing business should be performed at the full of the
moon, and it is followed by what is termed a grand "corrobberee," or
feast. In old times,--not long ago,--the menu on such occasions was
incomplete unless the principal dish consisted of human flesh; but if
this practice still prevails, as many believe to be the case, it is
indulged in secretly. We were informed that the only way of accounting
for the lack of numbers among the children of the aborigines is on the
theory that infanticide is still practised by the native tribes.

These savages are as fond of disfiguring themselves with yellow and red
pigments as are our Western aborigines. The tribes in the northwestern
part of Queensland are at constant enmity among themselves, and being
naturally fond of quarrelling, like our Indians, they improve every
opportunity to do so, frequently attacking and killing one another for
the most trivial causes. Each tribe has its territory carefully marked
off, and any infringement by another tribe is sure to end in bloodshed.
It would seem as though everything conspired to wipe them from off the
face of the earth. It is a remarkable fact that consumption causes the
death of a considerable percentage of the tribes annually. They believe
its victims to have become bewitched, having had an evil eye cast upon
them; the result is that they redouble the incantations which they
consider to be necessary to remove all illness.

The Australian blacks have a plenty of legends of the most barbaric
character, but by no means void of poetic features. They believe that
the earth was created by a being of supreme attributes, whom they call
Nourelle, and who lives in the sky surrounded by children born without
the intervention of woman. They entertain the idea that because the sun
gives heat it needs fuel, and that when it descends below the horizo