THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA.

189

dormant, like seed in the ground, until circumstances led to its being developed.*

Sir John Lubbock also says, "In no Australian language is there any word for 'five.”

This is not quite correct, for I know at least two large tribes (and there may be others that I do not know of), the one in Queensland and the other in the south-east of New South Wales, which have single words for "five," and in each case the word "five" is formed from the native word meaning "hand." As to the general question-the counting of numbers-I believe that a careful analysis of the numerals used by the Aryan family of languages will show that the base of them is one, two, three, and no more, three being in many religions a sacred and complete number; and that the other digits are expressed by words equivalent to onethree, hand, hand-and-one, hand-and-two, two-four, one-wanting two hands. If it should be proved that the Aryans, now the most civilized of races, originally said one-three for four, why should our Australians be considered "of low mental power" because they say two-two for four? Indeed, I am inclined to think that our Australians count in the more natural way, for they see nothing in or around them arranged in threes; the birds and beasts go in pairs; they themselves have two feet, two hands, two eyes, and so they count by twos. If the Australian blacks separated from the parent stock of mankind at a time when the common numeral system was still limited to one, two, or one, two, three, then their case is merely one of arrested development, their environment being unfavourable after separation; or if they ever had a developed system of composite numbers, these have fallen into disuse through the operation of a law of nature, for their wants are few and they live so much from hand to mouth that they had no need for high numbers. Their neighbours in Polynesia, who have plenty of fish to count, and bunches of bananas, and yams, and taro and cocoa-nuts, have developed many peculiar expressions to indicate the number of these, but our black fellow, who is well pleased when he is able to sing of the capture of "wakulá, boolará bundarrá” (one, two kangaroos), and whose only property is two

*On this point, Mr. Charles Wilson writes in the Times, Sept. 28, 1888: "The mental capacity of the aborigines is generally very much underrated. There are two schools at Moravian mission stations in Victoria, and the scholars are mostly aborigines; but the schools have passed their examinations as well as any other school in that colony, and the education given there is not inferior to that of our Board schools."-ED.

P 2

or three spears, clubs, and boomerangs, does not require to use high numbers in his daily speech. Nevertheless, when it is necessary, he counts 10, 20, 30, 40, by closing and opening his hands, and then for higher numbers he contents himself with saying 'Many, many."

For these and other reasons it is desirable that men of science in Britain should be careful in building theories upon what is said about our Australian aborigines; much of the information they have about them is unreliable, for it has not been gathered by competent observers or tested on scientific principles.

1

NOTE.

Professor Max-Müller, in his "Selected Essays " (volume ii., p. 27), makes the following interesting remarks:

"Looking at a report sent home lately by the indefatigable Governor of New South Wales, Sir Hercules Robinson, I find the following description of the religious ideas of the Kamilarois, one of the most degraded tribes in the North-Western district of the colony :

"Bhaiami is regarded by them as the maker of all things. The name signifies “maker," or "cutter-out," from the verb bhai, baialli, baia. He is regarded as the rewarder and punisher of men according to their conduct. He sees all, and knows all, if not directly, through the subordinate deity Turramûlan, who presides at the Bora. Bhaiami is said to have been once on the earth. Turramûlan is mediator in all operations of Bhaiami upon man, and in all man's transactions with Bhaiami. Turramûlan means "leg on one side only," "one-legged."

"This description is given by the Rev. C. Greenway, and if there is any theological bias in it, let us make allowance for it. But there remains the fact that Bhaiami, their name for deity, comes from a root 'bhai,' to ‘make,' to 'cut out,' and if we remember that hardly any of the names for deity, either among the Aryan or Semitic nations, comes from a root with so abstract a meaning, we shall admit, I think, that such reports as these should not be allowed to lie forgotten in the pigeon-holes of the Colonial Office or in the pages of a monthly journal."-ED.

ORDINARY MEETING, MARCH 5, 1888.

H. CADMAN JONES, ESQ., IN THE CHAIR.

The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed, and the following Elections were announced :

MEMBERS.-The Right Hon. Lord Halsbury, Lord Chancellor ; MajorGeneral Sir F. W. Grenfell, K.C.B., Sirdar of the Egyptian Army.

ASSOCIATES.-Major-General R. A. Cole, Surrey; Rev. H. Latham, M.A., Cambridge; H. L. Mulholland, Esq., M.P., Derry; Rev. G. B. Richards, F.R.S. (Tasmania), S. Devon; Rev. J. S. H. Royce, Australia; W. J. Smellie, Esq., Willesden; Major T. Varty, Penrith; The Worshipful T. Wright, Esq., Mayor of Leicester.

Also the presentation to the Library of "Victories and Defeats," by Major-General Anderson, B.S.C.

The following paper was then read by the author :—

ORIENTAL ENTOMOLOGY.

By the Rev. F. A. WALKER, D.D., F.L.S.

Asia.

HE subject-matter of the present paper is devoted to a Butterflies consideration of the diurnal Lepidoptera of Southern of Southern Asia, including Hindostan, Ceylon, and the group of numerous and, in most cases, large islands ordinarily known as the Malay Archipelago,—a wide region indeed, and comprising a correspondingly large and varied Fauna.

Informa

Our knowledge of the number of species occurring in these Recent tropical lands, of their local forms and varieties, as well as of Sources of their geographical range and distribution, has been materially tion. increased and systematised within the last thirty years by the following sources of scientific information :

Wallace's History of the Malay Archipelago, and the extensive collections that he made while travelling in the different islands.

Distant's Rhopalocera Malayana; or, Description of Butterflies of the Malay Peninsula, wherein 503 species are described, and nearly the whole of that number figured. Moore's Lepidoptera of Ceylon and also his Lepidoptera Indica, now in course of preparation.

or M

Relationship according to

the Rhopa

ว

Distant remarks on page vi. of the preface to his work: “A Distant, of study of the Rhopalocera of the Malay Peninsula gives unlocera of the mistakable proof of the relationship, both in genera and species, sula to those to those of Burma and North-Eastern India on one side, and to the islands of Borneo, Sumatra, and-in a less degree-to EasternIndia Java at its southern extremity."

Malay Penin

of Burma

and North

Also to the

orderof near

ness

(1) Borneo,

Ceylon.

islands in the And again on pages vii. and viii. : "Our facts are sufficient following to show that the Malay butterflies have their nearest relationship with those of Borneo-especially North Borneo; (2) Sumatra, in a lesser degree with those respectively of Sumatra, (8) Java and Burma, and the North-Eastern Indian districts, and in a still much less degree to those of Java and Ceylon." Wallace's Wallace has divided the Malay Archipelago into an Asiatic and an Australian region, a division, according to his own account, first indicated by Mr. Earl, and these two regions he terms respectively the Indo-Malayan and the Austro-Malayan divisions of the archipelago.

division of the Malay Archipelago into

(1) the IndoMalayan region; (2) the Austro-Ma

1) IndoMalayan

The Indo-Malayan division consists of the islands Java, layan region. Sumatra, and Borneo, all separated from one another, and from the peninsula of Malacca and Siam, Siam, by a shallow sea, shallow sea everywhere under 100 fathoms, and in many places under fifty fathoms in depth.

region

(2) AustroMalayan regiondeep sea.

The Austro-Malayan division consists of the island of Celebes, and, to the east of it, of the islands of Gilolo, Ceram, and Waigiou, Bouru, Mysol, Salwatty, and the Aru Islands, and southward of the islands of Lombock, Timor, &c., and still further to the east and nearest to Australia, of the great island of New Guinea. All these, and several others included in the same division, are separated from one another and from Australia by a deeper sea, over 100 fathoms in The shallow depth.

sea indicates

a recent geo

logical change.

The comparatively shallow sea around the Indo-Malay inge. The division indicates, according to Wallace, a recent geological deeper sea, a change; the deeper sea around the Austro-Malay division a separation of separation of the islands at a more remote period.

more ancient

the islands.

Both mam

malia and birds on the

islands are

Wallace proceeds to prove this statement more elaborately and in detail by reference, first, to the mammalia, and, more recent- secondly, to the birds found in the two divisions respecly formed tively, and their great diversity accordingly. The native alliedtothose mammalia of the Indo-Malay region are closely allied to Asia, and are those of Southern Asia, and are far larger in size, and much merous in more numerous in species, than those of the Austro-Malay species than region. Similarly, the genera of birds are mostly different in those occur the former localities to what they are in the latter.

of Southern

more nu

genera and

ring in the

more ancient

Java and Sumatra, both islands of the Indo-Malay division, and easterly are separated by a strait only fifteen miles wide, yet Java

1

equally with

are confined

possession of

possesses numerous birds never found in Sumatra. Again, Birds Bali, the easternmost island of the Indo-Malay division, and mammalia Lombock, the westernmost island of the Austro-Malay division to their own are only separated from each other by a strait fifteen islands. The miles wide, yet practically even this narrow sea constitutes wings gives too wide a barrier, it would seem, for birds to wing their way advantage in across, and so the diversity above recorded is maintained accordingly.

them no

this respect,

even when

the separating strait is

miles in

about the

to the

As regards butterflies, the remarks made about the birds only fifteen apply to them as well, for, to take the great Ornithoptera, or width. "Bird-wings," which will be discussed more fully and in What bas detail anon, by way of examples, the green, gold, and blue been said species are confined to the Eastern or Austro-Malay division; birds applies the very characteristic and unique O. Brookeana to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra in the Western or Indo-Malay division; and, though the yellow Ornithoptera occur in both divisions alike, yet in these instances, it must be remembered, many of the islands possess, if not each its own separate yellow species, yet a distinct local variety or form.

butterflies

as well.

flies casual

regarded as

species of

Fauna.

butterflies

the continent

species

the islands

It by no means follows, if a butterfly succeeds in crossing Some butterthe sea from the continent to an island, or from one island to visitors only, another, that, when previously unknown in its new locality, it and not to be should manage to survive the first season, or to propagate additional its species, should the climatal conditions be unfavourable, insular or the requisite food-plant be not forthcoming for the larva. It has been asserted that butterflies first existed on the Theory that continent, and thence they or some of the species spread to spread from the islands. It would probably be more correct to state that to islands. some of the species had continued on the islands ever since the period when the said islands formed a part of the nearest Some of the continent, and that other kinds had died out on the islands continued on since their formation in consequence of great changes of ever since temperature in the lapse of ages, or, and in more special formed a reference to the physical geography of the Malay Archipelago, continent. that numerous islands had once formed one continent, or an Increase of extension of the great continent of Asia in a south-easterly foes of direction, and that the increase or already-existing multitude appearance of the foes of insect-life, or the disappearance of various plants, or an unfavourable climate, or all these causes com- climate-one bined, caused the extinction of certain species in particular causescaused localities, whereas on other islands where the above tion of hindrances did not exist the said butterflies were perpetuated certain and preserved.

those islands

insects, dis.

of plants, unfavourable

or all of these

the extinc

species.

of islands

That the gradual separation into a group of islands of Developmen what was formerly continent would tend to an increased causes humidity of climate is certain, and that the said humidity climate.

humidity of