Excerpt from Eaglehawk and Crow: A Study of the Australian Aborigines Including an Inquiry Into Their Origin and a Survey of Australian Languages IN entering upon a study of the Australian aborigines, the question Who are they meets one upon the very threshold. Is the common belief correct that the lowly barbarians whose last vestiges are now rapidly melting away are the real indi genes? Or is their being so called the result of hasty careless Observation and imperfect knowledge? To call them the abori gines is convenient, especially as they have from their first appearance in history been so called, and as at a first view they seem homogeneous and without rival claimants to the dis tinction; but it will be easy to prove that the title does not strictly belong to them. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.