The Australian Race. Its Origin, Languages, Customs, Place of Landing in Australia, and the Routes by which it spread itself over that Continent... In Four Volumes
Melbourne, John Ferres, Government Printer, 1886, 1886, 1887 and 1887.
Octavo, three text volumes (here bound as two), and elephant folio (an 'atlas' of comparative languages), xx, 426, [ii] (blank), vi, 501 and x, 710 pages with a diagram, an illustration, a folding leaf, and numerous tables plus a map and 17 full-page plates (2 unlisted), plus the atlas, containing 45 pages and a large folding colour map of Australia in a front pocket (places marked include those where circumcision and 'The Terrible Rite' [sub-incision] were practised).
Later dark blue binder's cloth lettered in gilt on the spine (the text volumes, now slightly rubbed), and more recent dark blue cloth lettered in gilt on the front cover (the atlas, in fine condition); edges and third title leaf a little foxed; text paper lightly tanned; small erasure to leaf 323/4 in the (publisher's) second volume; overall, in excellent condition.
Accounts of over 200 tribes (but primarily their vocabularies) that 'have been drawn up by the writer from replies sent by his correspondents to a series of questions circulated in print'. Contributors are named; well-known figures include Foelsche, Gason, Gillen, Howitt, Salvado and numerous early explorers. The atlas contains comparative lists of 63 words from 197 tribes; it is often lacking from the set. [3 items].
Item #138099
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