generally speaking. They seemingly occupy permanent huts, but their tribe
did not bear any proportion to the size or number of their habitations.
It was evident their population had been thinned. The customs of these
distant tribes, as far as we could judge, were similar to those of the
mountain blacks, and they are essentially the same people, although their
language differs. They lacerate their bodies, but do not extract the front
teeth. We saw but few cloaks among them, since the opossum does not
inhabit the interior. Those that were noticed, were made of the red
kangaroo skin. In appearance, these men are stouter in the bust than at
the lower extremities; they have broad noses, sunken eyes, overhanging
eyebrows, and thick lips. The men are much better looking than the women.
Both go perfectly naked, if I except the former, who wear nets over the
loins and across the forehead, and bones through the cartilages of the
nose. Their chief food is fish, of which they have great supplies in the
river; still they have their seasons for hunting their emus and kangaroos.
The nets they use for this purpose, as well as for fishing, are of great
length, and are made upon large frames. These people do not appear to have
warlike habits nor do they take any pride in their arms, which differ
little from those used by the inland tribes, and are assimilated to them
as far as the materials will allow. One powerful man, however, had a
regular trident, for which Mr. Hume offered many things without success.
He plainly intimated to us that he had a use for it, but whether against
an enemy or to secure prey, we could not understand. I was most anxious to
have ascertained if any religious ceremonies obtained among them, but the
difficulty of making them comprehend our meaning was insurmountable; and
to the same cause may be attributed the circumstance of my being unable to
collect any satisfactory vocabulary of their language. They evinced a
strange perversity, or obstinacy rather, in repeating words, although it
was evident that they knew they were meant as questions. The pole we
observed in the creek, on the evening previously to our making the