for a song, and give an extra tightening to their drums. The old men sit or stand in groups. The young men spring blithely into the centre, accompanied by an involuntary ha! ha! of admiration from the throng of ebon beauties. Some little bantering passages between the sexes are silenced by the seniors, in growls from their white-haired lords, and spiteful snappings from the shrivelled hags of mammas. Silence is called; the ranks are formed; the moon's beams rest upon the naked performers. With bunches of gum leaves in their hands, and others round their ankles, like flying Mercuries, the dancing men are ready. The band strikes up. Slowly moving their bodies from side to side, the young men gracefully and tremulously move their hands to the measure. At a signal, the legs commence a similar motion, having a most grotesque and unnatural appearance. The flesh of the thigh and calf is seen quivering in a most extraordinary manner. This excites deep interest in the spectators. Exclamations of delight issue from the eager witnesses of the performance at some peculiarly charming and difficult wriggling of limb. After sundry chasseeing, the men break their line, rush together in a mass, without disorder or confusion, leap upwards in the air, wave their boughs over their heads, utter a loud "Waugh !" and, bursting into laughter, join in a melée of chattering, and receive the hearty congratulations of their friends." ("William Buckley and his Port Philip Black Friends," pp. 59, 60.

The commonly-received opinion with regard to the majority of the Australian aborigines is, that they have no idea of a Supreme Being. They make use of no prayers, and have no form of public or private worship. A singular belief with regard to the life which succeeds death seems to have been adopted by them since the coming of the whites. They think that when they fall down and die, they after a time "jump up white fellows." It is said that a semi-civilised savage, when about to be hung for some crime in Melbourne, cried out: "Very good; me jump up white fellow; plenty sixpence." He was consoled by the prospect of all the enjoyments which the money he should have as a white man would purchase for him. Their moral character does not reach a high standard. Polygamy is the prevailing custom; and conjugal infidelity, though discountenanced and punished, is by no means rare. Nearly all their quarrels result from disputes about the women. Infanticide prevails to a great extent, especially in the case of half-caste children. The latter they regard as no better than the wild dogs of the country. Infanticide is occasioned principally by the difficulty of providing proper nourishment. The food of the adults is not nutritious enough for very young children, and as the mother does not wean her offspring till it has reached the age of three or four years, the infants that are born in the meantime are usually killed. When reasoned with on the subject, the aborigines reply that it is no use to have picaninny, because "white fellow shoot 'em when 'em young man." It is certain that they eat the flesh of enemies taken in battle, but there is no sufficient testimony to show that human flesh is preferred by them to other food.

Not many attempts, we grieve to say, have been made to ameliorate

the condition of the Australian savages. The author we have so often quoted says: "There have not been wanting some feeble efforts to christianize the natives of Port Philip and the neighbouring colony of New South Wales. But all such attempts have failed. Besides difficulties previously mentioned, there are other powerful antagonisms-the restlessness of the people, the active opposition of some settlers, and the bad example and teaching of many white men" ("William Buckley and his Port Philip Black Friends," p. 73.) Mr. Bonwick speaks of Protestant missions. The only Catholic mission of these colonies is situated in Western Australia. It had to contend with many difficulties in the beginning, but it is now in a flourishing condition. The New Norcia Mission, as it is called, is conducted by Spanish Benedictines, whose superior, Dr. Salvado, is a bishop. The history of the mission is very interesting, and we hope to be able at some future date to make the readers of the IRISH MONTHLY acquainted with it. We shall merely say a word at present on the way in which the mission was begun. More than twenty years ago, Father Salvado, accompanied by another priest, sought an encampment of blacks in the wilds of Western Australia. On seeing them, the savages, who had never before gazed on a white man, seized their spears and shields, and assumed a menacing attitude. But the missionaries, undismayed, continued to advance, making signs of friendship. The savages allowed them to enter the encampment. The missionaries then took some sugar and began to eat it. The blacks, seeing this, wished to taste the sugar, and conceived such a liking for it that their visitors soon gave out all they had. A friendship was thus established. The missionaries henceforth followed the savages in their various wanderings, using the same food, and sleeping, like them, on the ground in the open air, till they had acquired a good knowledge of the black's language, and were enabled to lay the foundations of their mission.

It is much to be regretted that Western Australia is the only colony supplied with missionaries for the aborigines. There is sore need of them, especially in Queensland, where the blacks are very numerous. The Jesuit Fathers of Victoria and of South Australia are few in number, and scarcely able to cope with the amount of work which they have to do in the large cities where they are established. If their numbers were sufficiently increased, they would gladly found a mission among the neglected aborigines. Perhaps nowhere on earth would fewer difficulties be encountered in an attempt to renew the wonders of the far-famed missions of Paraguay than in the wilds of Northern Australia.

An excellent secular priest who had laboured for some time among the Murray tribes, wrote lately from Queensland (where he has found a more ample field for his zeal), giving a description of the condition of the aborigines in that colony. The letter which was addressed to a prominent member of the Society of Jesus, in Victoria, opened with the statement" that the writer had succeeded in obtaining from the Colonial Parliament a measure by which every aboriginal who wishes to settle on the land may have a homestead of 320 acres, 120 being

arable, with assistance from government in establishing the settlement. There are a great many tame blacks," continues the letter, "scattered throughout the settled districts of the colony, who are fit for such a settlement, and would desire it if made acquainted with the possibility of obtaining it, and how to set about it. I have not yet met a black in contact with civilisation, who would not like to be civilised when the feasibility of it was explained to him. As far as I can see, when their temporal wants are supplied, they are disposed to listen to the truths of Christianity. What they would do after hearing them, I cannot tell. I have not been with perfectly wild blacks; but they are said to be more docile and tractable than the semi-civilised, except where they are hostile, To start a mission among them would, I think, require a considerable amount of men and means. If a mission were opened in the north, among the tame Blacks on the confines of those who are being exterminated on the Palmer, I believe the poor creatures who are hunted there by the whites would be glad to take refuge at the mission, and the tame ones could be employed to entice them thither. The main difficulty of acquiring the language arises from the want of books; but this want can be to a considerable extent supplied by black interpreters. Each dialect is generally more or less understood for a considerable distance, sometimes for a hundred miles in different directions. alas! Messis quidem multa, operarii autem pauci! What am I in this vast Colony which is more than ten times as extensive as England and Wales. Absolutely nothing! If Catholic missionaries do not immediately come forward, I apprehend that the blacks will fall into the hands of the Protestants.'

But

The letter concludes thus: "As the settlement of whites on the gold-fields and in the pastoral districts is very rapid, so is the destruction of the Blacks by them and the native police (aboriginals trained as policemen). Immediate assistance would save thousands of them and settle them on the land, who otherwise must perish by poison and shot. The Bishop of Brisbane (Right Rev. Dr. Quin), is very anxious to help them, but he has no missionaries."

The colonies are, unfortunately, but scantily supplied with priests, who find that they have more than enough to do among the white population. In the meantime, the native Australian race is passing rapidly away. Like the leaves that fall in the forest at the approach of winter, they drop silently and unnoticed into the grave. Mutual wars, conflicts with Europeans, disease, infanticide, and the decrease of game, are in constant operation to thin their numbers and put a stop to their further propagation. It is sad to witness their extinction, but doubly sad to see them disappear from earth, enveloped in such a night of ignorance and error. Thousands have been already swept away, and those that remain are melting like a vapour from the face of the land that gave them birth, while there is none who will

A gold-field exists there, and the diggers are by no means scrupulous with regard to the way in which they get rid of the hostile blacks. They employ, as the letter seems to indicate lower down, poison and the rifle for that purpose.

stretch forth a hand to give them aid. The white men who have deprived them of forest and stream, of lake and mountain and plain, are surely not free from obligation with regard to them. After injuring them so much, after contributing so materially to their rapid decay, they ought to do a great deal more than they have done to make compensation for the past. If they fail in this, they cannot be held guiltless of the destruction of the native Australian tribes. The precept of Christian charity knows no distinction of colour, and the dusky savage of Australia is as much our neighbour, in the Gospel sense, as a white man. It were well for him if we would do to him as, in like circumstance, we would that others should do to us.*

NEW BOOKS.

I. Poems for Catholics and Convents, and Plays for Catholic Schools. By the Sisters of Mercy, St. Catherine's Convent, New York City. (New York. 1874.)

INSIDE and outside this is really a charming book. The somewhat awkward title which we have quoted describes it accurately enough, provided that under the term "Catholic" we understand "Irish" also, as people generally do, thanks be to God, especially in the United States, from which this handsome volume has been sent to us. It has been "printed and stereotyped at the New York Catholic Protectory, West Chester, N. Y.," which is, no doubt, an Industrial School or Orphanage, or some such charitable institution. We confess that this circumstance increases our wonder at the complete finish and elegance of the printing and every detail of the material get-up of the book. The book consists of a variegated and very pleasing assortment of poems on almost every conceivable topic connected with Faith and Fatherland, the fatherland being, of course, as we have implied, poor old Ireland. No matter where the theme may begin, "the heart untravelled fondly turns" to Ireland before the end of the poem with some such simple prayer as this (p. 128):

"God bless the dear old land, the dear old people,

God bless their hearts and homes each day anew;
God keep them in their faith, and in their country,
And keep them unto both for ever true!"

*An interesting letter on the Australian Aborigines will be found in the Tablet, January 8th, 1876. A perusal of it will more than repay the trouble of looking it up. After mentioning how Protestantism has failed to make Christians of the Aborigines, and how the Catholic Church has been unable to do anything through want of priests, the writer (an Irish Catholic gentleman, long resident in Australia) zealously exclaims, in concluding his letter: "For the honour of God, for the honour of our holy religion, for the salvation of the souls of the poor aborigines, I pray God that my effusion may meet the eye and engage the heart of some holy missioner to enter upon the work of their conversion, and save them from the degradation and ruin which otherwise is their inevitable lot."

We do not know how many Sisters of Mercy have conspired in producing this anthology, or whether "Sister M. A." who signs the clever preface, is responsible for all except those marked "M. C. S." We suspect that nearly all of them have flowed from one heart. Plenty of heart there is in them; but we think that, in gathering them into this volume, a more rigid self-censorship ought to have been exercised. No doubt some of the pieces which would thus have been condemned to remain in the caterpillar state of manuscript may give pleasure and do good to many souls; but the behests of art ought to be attended to, even by those who hope and pray that their words may become the instruments of grace. There is no reason why "pious poetry" should spoil beautiful themes by slovenly metre or slipshod commonplace. The very talent shown in these pages makes us regret all the more that many of the poems have the air of mere improvisations, while they would have been worthy of that patient study which alone secures the fit expression of the swift inspirations of the heart.

The second part of the book, "Poems and Plays for Children only," will amuse grown-up folk also, who can say with Santa Claus, in one of those rhymes, "though physically forty, my heart feels young once more."

II. A Daughter of St. Dominic. By GRACE RAMSAY, Author of "A Woman's Trials," "Iza's Story," &c. (London: R. Washbourne.) THE name given on the title-page transcribed above, shows that this is an earlier work of the writer who has since allowed us to thank her under her true name for many pleasant and edifying books, of which this is one of the pleasantest and most edifying. Miss Kathleen O'Meara has a good deal of what she herself speaks of somewhere as "that charming and untranslatable gift called esprit." Lively and interesting as are her own fictitious sketches, they do not exceed in interest or beauty this story of a real life.

III. My Return to the Church of Christ. By H. A. VANDER HOEVEN, Barrister-at-law, and Member of the Second Chamber of Holland. Translated from the Dutch. (London: Burns and Oates. 1877.) MONSIGNOR CAPEL, in his preface to Mr. Bagshawe's useful book of instructions for converts, "The Threshold of the Catholic Church," remarks that no two persons seem to be led to the fold of Christ in precisely the same way. This conclusion may be drawn from the various accounts of their motives given by different converts. Frederic Lucas, an English quaker, and Dr. Silliman Ives, an American bishop; Maziere Brady, an Irish parson, and Hope Scott, a London lawyer; Coventry Patmore, the poet, and John Oxenford, the critic; nay, men in circumstances less dissimilar than those whom we have on purpose matched unequally-men like Lord Dunraven and the Marquis of Ripon, or even like Dr. Newman and Cardinal Manning-if we could learn the process of their conversion (and three out of these few, and very many more whom we could name with hardly any effort of memory, have in fact described it for