the Darling. From these three
divisions various offsets and ramifications would have been made from
time to time as they advanced, so as to overspread and people by degrees
the whole country round their respective lines of march. Each offset
appearing to retain fewer or more of the original habits, customs, etc. of
the parent tribe in proportion to the distance traversed, or its isolated
position, with regard to communication with the tribes occupying the main
line of route of its original division; modified also, perhaps, in some
degree, by the local circumstances of the country through which it may
have spread.

Commencing with the parent tribe, located as I have supposed, first upon
the north-west coast, we find, from the testimony of Captain Flinders and
Dampier, that the male natives of that part of the country, have two
front teeth of the upper jaw knocked out at the age of puberty, and that
they also undergo the rite of circumcision; but it does not appear that
any examination was made with sufficient closeness to ascertain,
whether [Note 98: Vide Note 78.] any other ceremony was conjoined with
that of circumcision. How far these ceremonies extend along the
north-western or western coasts we have no direct evidence, but at
Swan River, King George's Sound, and Cape Arid, both customs are
completely lost, and for the whole of the distance intervening
between these places, and extending fully six hundred miles in
straight line along the coast, the same language is so far spoken,
that a native of King George's Sound, who accompanied me when travelling
from one point to the other, could easily understand, and speak to any
natives we met with. This is, however, an unusual case, nor indeed am I
aware that there is any other part of Australia where the same dialect
continues to be spoken by the Aborigines, with so little variation, for
so great a distance, as in the colony of Western Australia.

Following round the southern coast easterly, the head of the Great Bight
is the first point at which any great change appears to occur, and even
here it is less in the character, language, and weapons of the natives,
than in their ceremonial observances. For the first time the rite of
circumcision is observed, and conjoined with it the still more
extraordinary practice to which I have before alluded. The ceremony of
knocking out the two upper front teeth of boys arrived at the age of
puberty, is not, however, adopted. We have a