Page:The Present State and Prospects of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales.djvu/164

 they always erect them so as to have the open to the lee side, where they make a small fire quite dose to them. The great secret in making a fire in the hush is to make a small one: new hands generally make one so large that they cannot go near it. It is the habit of the natives to strip themselves when in their mi-mis, in order to expose the surface of their bodies to the full action of the fire. As they never make use of one of these which they have once abandoned, they are in a measure free from the vermin and filth, to which they would be obnoxious had they. fixed abodes. In the western and southern districts, however, (towards Port Fairy and Portland Bay,) they construct a kind of hut for the winter season, which is of a more durable character. This they do by heaping sods and clay on the top of the original mi-mi; they add a new piece to it at every shift of wind, so as still to make the entrance from the lee side, and by this means, when they remain in one place for any length of time, these earths reach to a considerable size: I have seen one fully fifteen feet long, and high enough for a man to stand upright in. As it was quite air-tight, and there were about ten or twelve savages squatting round a fire which was on the floor, the heat was intolerable, accompanied by an "ancient and very fishlike smell." Each family has a separate mi-mi and fire—the unmarried men, however, occupying one large one in common: the spears of the men being stuck upright in the ground, close to the fires, give to one of their encampments rather a military effect.