by a large majority, and cast out in disgrace. The
squaws tore down his eagle’s feathers, robbed him
of his scalps and other marks of honour, and drove
him, with scourges, out of the camp. Broken-
hearted and despising himself, Neykeemie wandered
through the forests, till, one day, some people be-
longing to the mission took compassion on his
wretched condition, and brought him under my roof.
There he found sympathy, consolation, and care,
and I had the joy of seeing him, through Christian
instruction, turned away from those thoughts of
revenge which he had before harboured. Since
then he has daily increased in religious knowledge,
and I had the satisfaction of receiving him as a
faithful member into our Church some time ago.”

Such is the sad stery of the banished chief, as
told to the traveller.

 

 

  
 

Ae, HE Australian native is, in some
respects, not unlike the African
negro; but whilst he has the
same woolly hair he has not the
thick lips of the African, nor is he
nearly so strong. He used to be
a miserable naked cannibal, roam-
ing about in search of food, but
now he is become a tame blanket-
clothed dependant on the white
man. He is undoubtedly intelli-
gent and good-natured, and as good at the three: R’s
as most English lads and lasses.

Australia is curiously lacking in useful ani-
mals. The thick-skinned order, to which the horse,
elephant, hog, ass, zebra, and others, belong, does
not furnish that vast country with one single member.
The horse, therefore, has been carried to its shores.
Mr. Bell, who wrote on quadrupeds, believes the
horse was first tamed by the Egyptians. He was
wild as the zebra, but man at length broke his proud
spirit, and made him a most useful servant. The
horse still needs breaking, as our illustration shows.
But will our four friends there make their pupil
cheerful in his obedience, or will he turn out dogged,
sullen, and spiritless? The education of a horse, it
has been said, should be that of a child. Pleasure
should be, as much as possible, associated with the
early lessons, while firmness must establish the habit
of obedience.

How strange, too, it is, that Australia, so well
suited for grazing, should not have one member of
the ‘ruminating’ order, which is the one of all others
mest useful to man. ‘The camel, deer, goat, sheep,
ox, bison, &c. (there are over 150 sorts in all), are
wholly wanting in that vast, strange land. Those

 

bullocks who are dragging those huge plum-puddings
on wheels, with wild gesture, tossing horn, and excited
tail, hav- been imported, like the horse on which the
gold commissioner (that bearded gentleman in jack-
boots) is quietly sitting. I think the horse looks far
quieter than the oxen; perhaps they have not been
broken in, as he has.

The plum-puddings on wheels consist of wool from

‘sheep in some great pastoral desert, which may roll

for hundreds of miles together. There some en-
terprising Briton has his flocks, tended by stockmen
and shepherds, and overlooked by himself. The
sheep-owner spends days and days on horseback. At
night the dingo, or zebra-wolf, a destructive but cow-
ardly beast, prowls about the fold seeking a supper;
but his howl is answered by the defying bark of the
watchful dogs, and it blends with the cry of the
strange night-bird. The dog is the only land-animal
belonging to the ‘ carnivora’ which Australia possesses. :
He has prick ears and a wolfish appearance. Behold
him there.- A kind Providence, who for some wise
reasons has made the country so bare of animals,
has at least given her man’s chief dumb friend,
the dog.

But whilst Australia is so thinly peopled with most
animals, having only about seventy-five species of all
the 1346 known to naturalists, what will you say when
you know that forty-three of those seventy-five are
‘marsupial ;’ that is, the females have bags or purses
in their bosoms, where they put their little ones when
very young? ‘There are only sixty-seven sorts of
marsupial animals altogether, and Australia has
forty-three of the whole. Some of these remarkable
creatures, as the red kangaroo, are as big as a man;
others, as the flying squirrel, are less than a mouse.

Amgng the marsupial animals we reckon the
opossum, ranging in size from a cat to a mouse,
and very active at night among the trees; the
zebra-wolf, or Zhylacnus, already mentioned; the
bandicoot, an animal of a small size, which bur-
rows or hides itself under fallen timber—a pretty-
creature, but unfit for food ; the potoroo, or kangaroo-
rat; the phalanger, which has a tail it can curl round
a bough and hold on by; the sugar squirrel, the
native bear, and the wombat. This latter is like a
great guinea-pig; it burrows in the sand-hills, and
hisses like a serpent. No marsupial animal has a
true voice, but something made up of grunt, growl,
wheeze, and hiss. The flying squirrels and phalan-
gers do not really fly, but they are supported in the
air, whilst leaping from tree to tree, by a kind of
wing, which acts as a parachute.

The most popular member of the family is the
kangaroo, who does not use his little fore-feet when
he wishes to ramble, but moves from place to place
by means of great leaps made by his very strong hind-
legs and tail. The tail is so-colossal that the kan-
garoo can balance his body upon it, and lunge out
fiercely with the two hind-fect meanwhile. He
chews the cud, is gentle, and in appearance not
unlike a deer. The flesh is much prized, and the
poor kangaroo is chased by the hunters. In rough

country the hunted one has the best of it, for he can
make astounding leaps over the low brushwood, and
across water-courses; but the dogs tire him out in
the open plain.