"They are remarkably fond of their children," says R. Dawson. In another place the author speaks of a great liberality towards children, displayed in distributing food. He speaks also of the adoption of orphans. "When the parents die, the children are adopted by the unmarried men and women and taken the greatest care of"; and "children of both sexes who had lost their parents were uniformly adopted by those who had no families, and sometimes by those who had."[701] [701] pp. 239, 268. Port Stephens blacks. As a matter of illustration I may adduce what Dr. J. Fraser says on that subject in his compilation on the New South Wales tribes. The aborigines love their children and treat them very kindly. The father makes for the boy a toy spear to practise throwing it and the girl gets a small stick to learn how to dig with it. The parents teach them to do all these things, and they "take as much delight in this business as we do in teaching our children their alphabet. The son is soon able to go out with his father on hunting expeditions," imbibes all sorts of woodcraft and learns to know his tauri (hunting district).[702] We may add that the book of Dr. Fraser, although only a compilation, seems to be a very reliable one, and he probably had much personal information from settlers, missionaries, etc. [702] pp. 4, 5, 60. We have already seen from the first statement of Howitt that parental love obtained among the Dieri. Gason affirms that parental love for children and the love of these for their parents is one of their greatest virtues.[703] We read also that "the children are never beaten, and should any woman violate this law she is in turn beaten by her husband."[704] This statement would astonish us at first sight, as we usually expect severity from the father. But when we remember that the mother had probably all the drudgery and work with the children we can understand that she might easily lose her temper, and then the father took the children's part. It is characteristic that the father's authority was directed rather to protect the children from a probably merited punishment than to punish and correct them. [703] _Loc. cit._, p. 258. [704] _Ibid._