Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/34

29 arm free. On the very old men and the young women it is an exceedingly graceful garment, and infinitely more becoming to them than the conventional garb of civilised life is to those belonging to that higher order of humanity. The men wear a belt round the loins under the cloak, whilst the women wear a band round the same portion of the person, said band having a thick fringe all round it of about a foot in depth. The fringe is made of innumerable strips of opossum or wallaby skin. Of course neither of these bands or belts are seen unless the rugs are thrown off. Both sexes wear armlets made of opossum skin on the upper portion of both arms, and a netted band about an inch and a half wide round the brow. This band is coloured red by means of ochre mixed with fat. Round the neck both sexes wear strings of reeds cut into sections of an inch long, which, when carefully dried, are of a clear pale straw colour, admirably calculated to form an agreeable contrast to their glossy, ebon-hued necks and shoulders. They also make necklets from the autennae [sic] of the lobster, which, when the fishes have been cooked, are of a bright red. These, with a kangaroo tooth or two dangling from their hair by the sides of the head, and a bone or short section of reed through the middle cartilage of the nose make up all the ornaments with which they feel proud to decorate themselves. These ornaments are not donned on great occasions, such as high days and holidays (not having any such festive periods in their calendar), but merely as the whim takes them, or for want of other occupation.

The only distinctive mark whereby there can be no mistake made as to the sex is that all the men have the two