even greater,--considering it in their own choice to rear up their offspring or not, exactly as it suited their convenience. In fact, we may learn from this and many other instances, that it is not _civilisation_ alone, but yet more than that, _Christianity_, by which the difference between the European and the Australian is produced:-- "In vain are arts pursued, or taste refin'd, Unless Religion purifies the mind." [45] These facts may account for the statement mentioned by Collins, of a native throwing himself in the way of a man who was about to shoot a crow, whence it was supposed that the bird was an object of worship, which notion is, however, contradicted by the common practice of eating crows, of which birds the natives are very fond.--See COLLINS' _Account of the Colony of New South Wales_, p. 355. Two young natives, to whom Mr. Oxley had given a tomahawk, discovered the _broad arrow_, with which it was marked on both sides, and which exactly resembles the print made by the foot of an emu. Probably the youths thought it a _kobong_, for they frequently pointed to it and to the emu skins which the party had with them.--See OXLEY'S _Journal_, p. 172. [46] The command in Deut. xxv. only extended to the case of eldest sons dying without children. Respecting the languages spoken in different parts of New Holland, it is doubtful whether they have all a common root or not, but the opinion of Captain Grey, who was not unqualified to judge, is in favour of their kindred origin. In so vast an extent of country, among wandering tribes, that hold little or no communication with each other, great differences in language were to be expected, and are found to exist. If three men from the east, the west, and the north of England meet together, they occasionally puzzle one another by their various dialects; what, then, must be expected by way of variety in a country between two and three thousand miles across, without much communication, and totally differing, at its extreme points, in climate and in animal and vegetable productions? For new objects new names were, of necessity, invented; but the resemblance between words signifying objects common everywhere, as, for instance, the parts of the human body, is said to be remarkable. The Australian languages are stated to be soft and melodious in their sound, and their songs, though rude and wild, have amazing power over the feelings of the soul. _Noise_ would appear to have great charms in savage ears, and, sometimes, from the high key in which our English songs are occasionally pitched, it would seem to have charms also for "ears polite." But an elegant and refined European song would only be laughed at and mimicked by the musical blacks, some few of whom are not, however, quite insensible to the sweets of civilised melody. Warrup, a native servant, was once present when "God save the Queen" was sung in chorus, and it so affected him, that he burst into tears.