Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/162

 thighs, and the calves of his legs, evidently for the purpose of being eaten. When a woman has several children, they are said to eat all those which are born between the birth of the first and the time that it is able to follow the tribe, that is, until it is four or five years old: the difficulty, if not impossibility, of carrying about more than one child in arms, furnishing a strong argumentum ab inconveniente for getting rid of it in some way or other. They seem to think that it does a child no harm to be eaten, they say, "by-and-bye he plenty come again."

Notwithstanding this revolting practice, they seem by no means a ferocious people, but on the contrary, gentle and courteous in their manners, very fond of social intercourse, easily amused, and singularly light-hearted: they have a great taste for mimicry, in which art some of them excel. They are (in common, I believe, with most savages) very indolent and averse to labour, and, as a consequence are great procrastinators; there are no words in the English language which they understand better than by-and-bye. Even in manufacturing their weapons, and implements of the chase, they show but little taste or industry, being in this respect far behind the New Zealanders and South Sea Islanders. The only specimens of their industry which I have seen, besides spears, shields, boomerangs, &c., are some net bands for the hair, a kind of basket, called by them a "biniac,"—both, however, neatly executed,—and cloaks or rugs made of opossum skins stitched together. They are passionately fond of smoking, that great resource of idleness. It has been the remark of