Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/289

 DRESS. 211 neither so large nor so well made as those worn by the Adelaide tribe. As the skins are not tanned the natives take care not to allow the flesh side of their cloaks to become wet, which would make them hard and stiff; they therefore always turn the hairy side outwards in rainy weather. The best rugs are always worn by the women, especially if they have small children, whom they serve at the same time for a covering, either sitting on the mother’s back while travelling, or in her lap at the camp. Such children as are no longer carried are generally worst off for clothing, being either quite naked, or covered only with a small piece of a worn-out rug. More for ornament than for any apparent comfort, the men wear a quantity of yarn on their heads, woven several times round so as to leave only the crown uncovered. The yarn is usually spun of opossum fur or human hair on a sort of distaff, two feet long and not thicker than a goose quill, having towards one end a short cross piece to wind the ready spun yarn upon. Those who wish to appear very smart embellish this ornament still further by placing a bunch of emu feathers in it, above the forehead. On festive occasions, such as the meeting of two strange tribes, they put into this yarn two green sticks stripped of the bark, and covered with white shavings, that make them appear like plumes, fixing one behind each ear and allowing the upper end to incline forward. This ornament, combined with the white and red paint on the chest and arms, is, in my opinion, very much in character with a savage people, expressing a rude pomp that almost borders on the ferocious. I have observed this ornament only among the north-western tribe, to whom it may perhaps be confined. The tip of the tail of a wild dog or wallaby is often attached to the taper end of the beard, and the whole tail of a wild dog tied round the head, is considered very ornamental, Those natives that live amongst Europeans are fond of substituting for the lastmentioned ornament a white or gay coloured rag, or even a bit of paper. Round the waist the men invariably wear a belt or girdle of some sort, it is generally of human hair spun into yarn, and afterwards twisted into a rope about half an inch