Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/338

316, has had a most salutary effect; the tribes have ever since conducted themselves peaceably, and are new on friendly terms with the inhabitants. It would to have been necessary to read them a severe lesson to teach them our superiority, and this could only be done by some summary punishment. The result proves that severity in the beginning is, in such cases, humanity in the end. It is to be hoped that these examples will be the means of preventing any farther effusion of blood. The tribes are now under the care of superintendents, and daily receive rations from government. This arrangement, with moderate forbearance on the part of the settlers, will no doubt be the means of saving much property and preventing the waste of many useful lives.

The natives of western Australia are of middle stature, slender in limb, and many of them with a protuberant abdomen. The only article of dress is the waistband, or noodlebul, which is a long yarn of worsted, spun from the fur of the opossum, wound round the waist several hundred times; the cloak (booka), of kangaroo's skin, is worn chiefly by the women and old men, and occasionally, in the winter time, by the young men; they wear it as a mantle over the shoulders, fastened at the right shoulder with a rush (boerno). The large skins of the male kangaroo are appropriated to the women; the single men ornament their head with feathers, dogs' tails and other matters, and sometimes have the hair long and bound round the head, the women, who are mostly plainer than the men, use no ornaments and wear their hair quite short Both sexes smear their faces and the upper part of the body with red pigment (wilgu), mixed with grease, which gives them a disagreeable odour. Their hair is frequently matted with the same pigment. When fresh painted all over, they are a brick dust colour, which gives them a most singular appearance. They have the same practice amongst them as at Sydney and King George's Sound, of cutting gashes on their body, and raising an elevated cicatrix: it is done chiefly on the shoulders and chest, and is both a distinguishing mark for different tribes, and an honorary distinction. The septum of the nose is also perforated, in which a feather or small bone is worn. Ornaments, however, are not considered as marking the man of authority, for they are worn by the young single men. Every individual of the tribe, when travelling or going to a distance from their encampment, carries a fire stick for the purpose of kindling light; and in winter they are scarcely ever without one under their cloaks for the sake of heat. It is generally a cane of Banksia grandis, which has the property of keeping ignited for a considerable time. Rotten bark or touchwood is