Swan  River,  after  a  voyage  along  the  western  coast,  the  Austrahan,
who  had  seemed  quite  civilized,  deserted  the  ship,  and  the  next  seen
of  him  was  a  savage — greasy,  almost  naked,  painted  all  over  and  the
hero  of  several  murders.  The  most  effective  work  of  reclamation  is
going  on  among  the  children  of  natives  as  well  as  those  of  mixed
blood.  The  condition  of  the  latter  is  particularly  hard  ;  for  they  are
outcasts  of  both  blacks  and  whites.  Remembering  the  exalted  opinion
■which  the  Australian  has  of  the  white  man,  it  is  probable  that  his
custom  of  sacrificing  a  half-caste  at  his  corroboree  has  a  religious  sig-
nificance.  He  would  kill  and  eat  the  luckless  one,  just  as  it  is  the  rule
in  some  tribes  for  favorite  children  who  have  died  a  natural  death  to
be  devoured  by  their  parents  ;  by  thus  eating  flesh  in  which  coursed
the  blood  of  a  white  man,  he  would  honor  the  memory  of  some  one
of  his  tribe  whose  soul  was  embodied  in  the  jumped-up.
ON    THE    WAR-PATH.
