Page:Native Tribes of South-East Australia.djvu/788

762 They use the Wordan, or spear-thrower, also as a chopper for cutting up animals cooked and uncooked, it being pointed with a sharp piece of flint. The women have the usual stout stick for digging purposes, sharpened at one end, and it also serves as their weapon. The men have a short throwing weapon about fifteen inches long, sharpened at one end, with which they are very expert.

Physically the Mining are a medium-sized people, small-boned, slender in build, athletic and smart-looking; the complexion of a dark copper colour, and the hair black, bushy, and curly.

A pigment called Wilgey is used by the Mining to paint themselves on various occasions, and is obtained far north of the head of the Bight. They also use white ashes to paint themselves with when on the war-path.

In this tribe food is always shared equally among all present. For instance, if a wallaby has been killed, and there happen to be ten or twelve in the party, each one receives a share of the animal. No one touches the animal or part of it until given by the killer. Should the man who killed it be absent while it is being cooked, no one would touch it till he came to share it. Women share equally with the men, and children are carefully looked after by both parents. When a kangaroo was killed by a native servant of a white man, with the gun of the latter, none of the blacks present would touch it until the latter cut off portions of it and ordered them to eat it.

The Narrang-ga tribe rules are as follows. If, in hunting, a man kills a kangaroo, he gives to the man on his right hand the head, tail, and the lower part of the hind leg, some fat and some liver. The second to the right receives the hinder part of the backbone and the left shoulder. The man to his left receives the right shoulder, and some from the right side, and the upper part of the left leg. His mother receives the ribs, his brother has part of his father's portion, and his sisters receive the flank. The kangaroo is cooked before being distributed.

When the men of the tribes of the Karamundi nation