Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/262

 corroberrees. The Yarra-Hapinni tribe, which I saw execute this dance near the Clybucca creek, were so elaborately painted with white for the occasion, that even their very toes and fingers were carefully and regularly coloured with concentric rings, whilst their hair was drawn up in a close knot, and stuck all over with the snowy down of the white cockatoo, which gave them the appearance of being decorated with white wings. In this dance, the performers arranged themselves in the form of a semicircle, and grasping the ends of their boomerangs, which are also painted with great minuteness and regularity, they swayed their bodies rapidly from right to left, displaying a degree of flexibility in their limbs, which might have created the envy of many a pantomimic artist. Each movement of their bodies to and fro was accompanied by a loud hiss, whilst a number of other natives similarly painted, beat time with sticks, and kept up an incessant and obstreperous song. Every now and then the dancers' would stop and rush, crowding together, into a circle, raising their weapons with outstretched arms, and joining with frantic energy in the song. They would then be more composed, and walk backwards and forwards in couples, holding each other by the hand, until again roused by an elderly native to resume the dance. It was not until midnight that the noise ceased, which, every evening, whilst the ceremonies lasted, might be heard at a distance of two or three miles. The tribes of natives near