Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/290

 212 THE PORT LINCOLN TRIBE. thick, sometimes interwoven with emu feathers; but if they cannot obtain one of this sort they will use any kind of string rather than wear none at all. They draw it tight at all times, but especially when they are hungry, for the purpose, as they say, of staying their stomachs, or of rendering the craving of hunger less painful. PAINTING. The cosmetics used by the Aborigines of this district are of different sorts; the one most esteemed and universally applied by both sexes is grease. If they have an abundance of it, they will anoint the whole body, but in times of scarcity they confine themselves to the face. I have no doubt that they derive considerable comfort from this practice, particularly in hot weather, as I have often seen them beg very earnestly for a piece of fat, and as often heard them compare the custom to the washing of white men. The paints they employ in setting off the beauty of their persons are three, namely, black, white, and red. The first and last of these are obtained from places far to the north, and consist of a soft kind of stone, of which they scrape some powder, and rub it on their previously greased faces, arms, and breasts, when the paint, particularly the black, assumes a shining and metallic hue. As a substitute for the black paint, the cinders of a burnt grass-tree are sometimes used, which produce a. deep black but much duller colour than the metallic paint. The white paint is a soft kind of chalk or pipeclay, and is only applied on particular occasions, such as dancing and mourning. How they ornament themselves with this paint for dancing I shall afterwards have an opportunity to describe; when in mourning, the women paint their foreheads, draw a ring round their eyes, and a. perpendicular stripe on the stomach; while the men only put it on their foreheads, and at other times on their breasts, in different shapes, such as lines or dots, in order to indicate how near a relative the deceased was to them. The black paint is said to indicate mourning also, but I cannot say in what particular cases. It is, however, clear that under the same circumstances the natives do not all paint alike, as the deceased must