inted with the language of
the natives and who does not possess great personal influence over them
to pursue an inquiry of this nature; for one of the customs most rigidly
observed and enforced amongst them is never to mention the name of a
deceased person, male or female. In an inquiry therefore which
principally turns upon the names of their ancestors this prejudice must
be every moment violated, and a very great difficulty has thus to be
encountered in the outset. The only circumstance which at all enabled me
to overcome this was that the longer a person has been dead the less
repugnance do they evince in uttering his name. I therefore in the first
instance endeavoured to ascertain only the oldest names on record; and on
subsequent occasions, when I found a native alone and in a loquacious
humour, I succeeded in filling up some of the blanks. Occasionally round
their fires at night I managed to involve them in disputes regarding
their ancestors, and on these occasions gleaned much of the information
of which I was in want.

LAWS OF LANDED PROPERTY. RIGHTS AND BOUNDARIES. PROPERTY VESTED IN
INDIVIDUALS.

Traditional Laws relative to Landed Property.

Landed property does not belong to a tribe, or to several families, but
to a single male; and the limits of his property are so accurately
defined that every native knows those of his own land, and can point out
the various objects which mark his boundary. I cannot establish the fact
and the universality of this institution better than by the following
letter addressed by Dr. Lang, the Principal of Sydney College, New South
Wales, to Dr. Hodgkin, the zealous advocate of the Aboriginal Races:*

(*Footnote. Extracted from the Reports of the Aboriginal Protection
Society.)

Liverpool, 15th November 1840.

My Dear Friend,

In reply to the question which you proposed to me some time ago in the
course of conversation in London, and of which you have reminded me in
the letter I had the pleasure of receiving from you yesterday, with the
pamphlets and letters for America, namely, Whether the Aborigines of the
Australian continent have any idea of property in land, I beg to answer
most decidedly in the affirmative. It is well known that these Aborigines
in no instance cultivate the soil, but subsist entirely by hunting and
fishing, and on the wild roots they find in certain localities
(especially the common fern) with occasionally a little wild honey;
indigenous fruits bei