eloquently dwell. If the Australian mystae, at the most solemn
moment of their lives, are shown a dull or dirty divine ballet
d'action, what did Sophocles see, after taking a swim with his pig?
Many things far from edifying, yet the sacred element of religious
hope and faith was also represented. So it is in Australia.


[1] J. A. I., xxiv. p. 416.

[2] Religion in Greek Literature, p. 259. It is to be regretted
that the learned professor gives no references. The Greek
Mysteries are treated later in this volume.

[3] See A picture of Australia, 1829, p. 264.


These studies ought to be comparative, otherwise they are
worthless. As Mr. Hartland calls Daramulun "an eternal Creator
with a game leg" who "died," he may call Zeus an "eternal father,
who swallowed his wife, lay with his mother and sister, made love
as a swan, and died, nay, was buried, in Crete". I do not think
that Mr. Hartland would call Zeus "a ghost-god" (my own phrase), or
think that he was scoring a point against me, if I spoke of the
sacred and ethical characteristics of the Zeus adored by Eumaeus in
the Odyssey. He would not be so humorous about Zeus, nor fall into
an ignoratio elenchi. For my point never was that any Australian
tribe had a pure theistic conception unsoiled and unobliterated by
myth and buffoonery. My argument was that AMONG their ideas is
that of a superhuman being, unceasing (if I may not say eternal), a
maker (if I may not say a Creator), a guardian of certain by no