They wear no clothes, and
their bodies are marked by scars and wales. They seem to have no regular
mode of dressing their hair, this appearing to depend entirely on
individual taste or caprice.
"THEY APPEAR TO LIVE IN TRIBES, SUBJECT, PERHAPS, TO SOME INDIVIDUAL
AUTHORITY, AND EACH TRIBE HAS A SORT OF CAPITAL OR HEAD-QUARTERS, WHERE
THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN REMAIN, WHILST THE MEN, DIVIDED INTO SMALL
PARTIES, HUNT AND SHOOT IN EVERY DIRECTION. The largest number we saw
together, including women and children, amounted to nearly two hundred.
"Their arms consist of stone-headed spears, of throwing-sticks, of
boomerangs or kileys, clubs, and stone hatchets.
"These natives manufacture their water buckets and weapons very neatly,
and make from the bark of a tree a light but strong cord.
"THEIR HUTS, OF WHICH I ONLY SAW THOSE ON THE COAST, ARE CONSTRUCTED, IN
AN OVAL FORM, OF THE BOUGHS OF TREES, AND ARE ROOFED WITH DRY REEDS. THE
DIAMETER OF ONE WHICH I MEASURED WAS ABOUT FOURTEEN FEET AT THE BASE.
"THEIR LANGUAGE IS SOFT AND MELODIOUS, SO MUCH SO AS TO LEAD TO THE
INFERENCE THAT IT DIFFERS VERY MATERIALLY, IF NOT RADICALLY, FROM THE
MORE SOUTHERN AUSTRALIAN DIALECTS, WHICH I HAVE SINCE HAD AN OPPORTUNITY
TO INQUIRE INTO.
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