Until we know the sequence of the cause and effect in the case of the Australian Kobong, we have but little room for speculation as to its origin. Is the plant or animal adopted by a particular family selected because it was previously viewed with a mysterious awe, or is it invested with the attributes of sacro-sanctity because it has been chosen by the family? This has yet to be investigated.
Meanwhile, as Captain Gray truly remarks, the Australian Kobong has elements in common with the Polynesian tabu! Might he not have added that the names are probably the same? The change from t to k, and the difference between a[221] nasal and a vowel termination, are by no means insuperable objections.
He also adds that it has a counterpart with the American system of totem; although the exact degree to which the comparison runs on all fours is undetermined.
But the disuse of certain words on the death of kinsmen, and the Kobong are not the only customs common to the Australian and American.
The admission to the duties and privileges of manhood is preceded by a probation. What this is in the Mandan tribe of the Sioux Americans, and the extent to which it consists in the infliction and endurance of revolting and almost incredible cruelties, may be seen in Mr. Catlin's description—the description of an eye-witness. In Australia it is the Babu that cries for the youths that have arrived at puberty. Suddenly, and at night, a cry is heard in the woods. Upon hearing this, the men of the neighbourhood take the youths to a secluded spot previously fixed upon. The ceremony then takes place. Sham fights, dances, partial mutilations of the body, e.g., the knocking out of a front tooth, are elements of it. And this is as much as is known of it; except that from the time of initiation to the time of marriage, the young men are forbidden to speak to, or even approach a female.
Surely, it is the common conditions of a hunter[222] life which determine these probationary preparations for the hardships which accompany it in populations so remote as the Australian and the American of the prairie. I say of the prairie, because we shall find that in the proportion as the agricultural state replaces the erratic habits of the hunter, ceremonies of the sort in question decrease both in number and peculiarity of character.
A third regulation forbids the use of the more enviable articles of diet, like fish, eggs, the emu, and the choicer sorts of opossum and kangaroo to the Australian youth.
All that is known of the Australian religion is due to the researches of the United States Exploring Expedition. The most specific fact in this respect is the name Wandong as applied to the evil spirit. I believe this to be truly a word belonging to the Oceanic Pantheon in general, and—as stated above—to be the same as Vintana in Malagasi, and as the root anit in many of the Polynesian languages.
The Tasmanians.—A few families, the remains of the aborigines of Van Dieman's Land, occupy Flinder's Island, whither they have been removed.
I can give but little information concerning them.