George William Rusden

“ When earthly things which deserve respect are traduced, "Reverence, that angel of the world," can hardly remain to hallow it, and debased generations may pollute the homes of God-fearing ancestors.
Already the sanction of an oath has been barred from one branch of Parliament in deference to insolence and intrigue; and if the same low arts succeed in banishing religion from schools, and in uprooting the national Church, a decay of the moral fibre of the nation must ensue. ”

“ About the boomerang (such was the tribal name for the implement at Port Jackson, where the English first settled) the most absurd notions still prevail in England. The settlers applied the term to all the curved missiles used by the natives. The natives had a different name for each variety of their curved missiles. The boomerang which returns to the thrower was only a plaything, and was never used in war; nor, unless the native had no other missile at hand, even to throw at birds. ”

“ Not only as regarded sight, but also in sounds, there was a freemasonry of acquisition by the Australian when initiated by the tribe.
Peculiar songs, a peculiar call (or cooey) with its peculiar answer, and much mysterious lore were imparted to him. So stern was the law imposing secrecy that on one occasion a native lost his life rather than participate in a breach of confidence. ”

“ The once time-honoured principle of representation of the tax-payers has been so grotesquely inverted that they who contribute the bulk of the taxation have but a nominal voice in its expenditure.
It is even demanded that the formula—one man, one vote—shall supersede all claims for representation of intelligence and industry. ”

“ Then everything includes itself in power; Power into will, will into appetite; And appetite, an universal wolf. So doubly seconded with will and power, Must make perforce an universal prey. And, last, eat up himself. ”

“ We may say generally that the gradual establishment of the masses in power is of the blackest omen for all legislation founded on scientific opinion, which requires tension of mind to understand it, or self-denial to submit to it. ”

“ Destruction shall couch in his path, as the snake
Ere, darting its venom, it springs from the brake.
Till the hand of thy foe from his vile carcase torn5
Thy shade shall appease, and our triumph adorn
Because thou art gone, loved Mytah.
May the earth which enwraps thee be clothed with flowers
The sweetest that bloom amid Spring's first showers;
May the fresh dews of heaven its bosom bedew
With a fragrance for ever undying, yet new,
⁠And rest thee in peace, loved Mytah.
VII.
⁠"Nay, nay, Koreungat ”

“ Before a very infirm old man died he was neglected by the majority of the tribe; but it must be remembered that a decrepit man could not accompany them in their wanderings.
As cannibalism was the exception, and not the rule among Australian tribes, the lonely creature, unable to journey with his people, was not exposed to danger from assault. ”

“ The conduct of foreign affairs, and of all momentous problems in government, must be thrown into crucibles controlled by ignorance and passion. In the very heart of the Empire intelligence is to be stifled. If none but those who lodge within the electoral district of the City of London can vote for a Member for the City, the caretakers of property will wield the power heretofore possessed by proprietors deemed worthy to represent the wealth, the intelligence, the industry, and the enterprise of the metropolis. ”

“ It is the most pity-moving characteristic in the history of man, that the self-earned miseries of one country are powerless to guard against their repetition in another.
Each seems to crave to work out, not its own salvation, but its own—destruction. ”

“ Those who have only contemptuously or cursorily observed the habits of the Australians can scarcely imagine how gay and good humoured they could be. Those who have really gained their confidence will admit that the simple black was at once the blithest and most cheerful companion.
8 (p. 24) . "Who? Who? Moyarra!"
The perceptions of the Australians were so keen that this line implies no exaggeration. Expert trackers knew at a glance whose footprint they met, if they had had previous opportunities of becoming acquainted with it.
9 (p. 25) . "By Mytah and the one she loved." ”

“ The "conflict of laws" sorely exercised the patience of Threlkeld. He represented, on another occasion, that it was anomalous that a black man should be tried in an English Court for killing another black, inasmuch as, if "acquitted, he must again stand trial amongst his own people"; and, moreover, in the English Courts no black was allowed to give evidence.
The close resemblance of observances of their rites by various Australian tribes, even where the languages or dialects widely differ, is worthy of remark.
2 (p. 13) "he will seize Thine own loved Mytah for his bride." ”

“ The custom which sanctions the forcible abduction of native women widely prevails, but has often been erroneously represented as a necessary condition.
This is an error. Marriages were often the sequel of an affiancing of many years' duration, and were peaceful and happy. On the other hand, despite any affiance, the strong hand of a warrior frequently seized upon an unwilling bride, and was exerted to retain her, in defiance of friend or foe.
3 (p. 14) "The night-enamoured cuckoo's call."
The Australian cuckoo of the colonists is only heard at night. ”

“ Some of the rites may be glanced at in this note.
The circle, so universal an emblem of eternity; the sinuous line of beauty; and, above all startling to the Christian observer in Australian woods, the Cross—are to be found amongst the ceremonial emblems used at the places where youths were initiated. Those spots no women or children were permitted to visit.
The footprint (an ancient Aztec sign) is in request at Australian ceremonies. The quartz-crystal, once revered in parts of Europe, and used in incantations or impostures, was an object of mysterious reverence among Australian tribes ”

“ The initiation has invariably taken place under promise of secrecy, and the information thus given is so much out of the bounds of local tradition that the Australian might fairly, and actually did, look upon such a revelation as unforbidden by his country's jurisprudence. Thus, when the English took possession of New South Wales, Governor Phillip and his principal officers were made acquainted with the ceremonies, as soon as they had established friendly relations with the tribe at Port Jackson. ”

“ There is an Australian bird, of the parasitic order, which casts upon other birds the care of its egg and young, but it is not known by the name of "cuckoo," which is given to the night-bird whose call reminded the early colonists of the notes of the English cuckoo. ”

“ The religious rites of the Australian tribes, identical as they were in many respects throughout the vast territory over which they were scattered, may be accepted as proof that though their ideas of the supernatural were vague when Europeans arrived amongst them, those ideas had been handed down from a time when their ancestors had a more definite creed. The symbols in use seemed to be relics of a belief of the past; not modern inventions, appearing locally and with widely varying developments. ”

“ It can be carried on by patronising or giving to expectant partisans places paid out of the taxes, or it may consist in the directer process of legislating away the property of one class and transferring it to another. It is this last which is likely to be the corruption of these latter days. . . ."We are drifting towards a type of government associated with terrible events—a single Assembly, armed with full powers over the Constitution, which it may exercise at pleasure." ”

“ But this famous system is evidently in decay through the ascendency over it which is being gradually obtained by the vulgar assumption that great masses of men can directly decide all necessary questions for themselves." ..."The delusion that democracy, when it has once had all things put under its feet, is a progressive form of government, lies deep in the convictions of a particular political school. ”

“ The implement, when shaped by the tomahawk with care, was placed over warm embers. The heat made the wood plastic, and the maker then warped the implement, tested its flight in some open space (it was dangerous to throw the light implement among trees, for its rotation was so rapid and its course so swift that contact with anything hard almost certainly fractured it) , and, if necessary, warped it more, until he had brought it to such perfection as the particular wood permitted. ”

“ But in the land "set in the silver sea," from which the French philosopher drew many of his arguments, the virtue he commended seems doomed.
Members of a body degraded in its own composition may be seen one day wallowing in the mire of criminal details, and on another revelling in aspersions against the judiciary. ”

“ Another of England's sages, Sir Henry Maine, pointed out in burning words, which will ere long be recognized as prophetic, the inevitable consequence of the follies of 1867 and 1884.
"The effect" (he wrote) "of the virtually English discovery of government by Representation was to diminish the difficulties of popular government in exact proportion to the diminution in the number of persons who had to decide public questions. ”

“ END OF CANTO I.
↑ When a man sunk into atrophy which the tribe could not account for, it was customary to attribute his destruction to the evil influence exerted against him by the magical arts of a wise man in a hostile tribe.
NOTES TO CANTO I.
1 (p. 9) Long years have passed; those rites are done.
The ceremonies of the Australian savages have been so often, and in some respects so truly, spoken of by travellers, that I need not here detail them. Allusion to some of their principal characteristics will perhaps suffice. ”

“ The expedition lasted several weeks, and the three friends returned with trophies of the withered hands of three enemies.
8 (p. 79) . "And, ambushed, pierce the kangaroo."
No more expert sportsman than the Australian has been known. He could carry an ambush with him.
Watching intently his game, never moving a muscle while the creature looked towards him, carrying a bough so adroitly that it seemed a growing bush, he stealthily advanced while the animal's eyes were not turned towards him. When near enough he resorted to his spear, or when hunting on behalf of an European, his gun. ”

“ There were of course districts in which no such crystals abounded, but they were obtained by barter or as presents from other tribes, and were carefully enveloped in twine made from the fur of the opossum. In 1835 a white man seized one of these, and showed it to a native woman in the presence of the man whom he had despoiled of it. A black was ordered by the tribe to punish the crime, and he slew the criminal.
A missionary, Rev. Mr. Threlkeld (author of an Australian Grammar) , attended to interpret in a court of law for the obedient executioner. Mr. ”

“ When used as an offensive weapon it is usually thrown with the convex side outwards, but when intended to return it is held in the reverse position although it will probably act in either direction if properly handled. ”