Item 03: 'The Aborigines of Australia. A Lecture by Wm. Ridley M.A.', 14 September 1864. - Page 21

creature.    In some parts of the country they seek to discover the

unknown murderer of the dead by catching a  ^fly or   bee and letting

it fly from the surface of the corpse.   They believe that the

insect will fly towards the murderer;   and destroy

the unhappy person thus marked out.

2.   Communism is another principle which is to them

a Law.   The tribes, which are often very small, have  ^each   their

tribal inheritance, with its boundaries exactly defined.

All within the district  ^ or taorai   is the property of the whole tribe;   and

what one obtains, all members of the tribe claim a

right to enjoy.   This communism is limited by rules

which exclude the young men until they have attained

a certain age and passed through prescribed ceremonies

from  the food  some articles of food.   The best of the

game, emu and kangaroo, is set apart for the  

men alone.   But personal property in land or

goods is prevented by the claim of the tribe.   So when

first the blackfellows come to the stations of the  

Colonists and receive [presents?] or rewards, these are

divided among their companions.   And it was [not?]