B 505: Lecture on the Aborigines of Australia and papers on Wirradhurrei dialect, 1837-1840

Still the women know to do a kind of [crossed out: knitting] netting very neatly with a sort of wooden crochet needdle and spin the yarn first from oppossum wool or also from the bark of the [indecipherable] with a piece of wood acting as a spindle. They often knit little bags and longer pieces of knitting serve as a kind of bandage round the head to keep the hair together. Some of the weapons too, such as the well known boomerang (or Wamara as it is called here) [word crossed out] and the shield & others are occasionally nicely shaped smoothed & carved. Their original cutting instrument is a hard stone, often a black flint ground down on another stone into the shape of an axe or hatchet to which they sometimes [word crossed out] manage to fasten a wooden handle. But of course it was a wearisome task to cut with such a tool & here they delight to get a tomahawk from Europeans. One of the worst features [words crossed out] in their natural character is almost the utter absence of a feeling of shame, there are here & there slight exceptions, but too often they [word crossed out] are seen in a perfect state of nudity or generally nearly so. They are rather generous towards each other, when they can afford it, sharing their food & too often even their few articles of [word crossed out] clothing. In fact this propensity renders them quite amusing especially after they first try European clothes. You may give one of them an old coat in the morning, after a few hours it may have changed several owners, perhaps towards evening more than a dozen have sported with it. I may here add that

in this transition state when they begin to wear clothes, they often present the most grotesque figures by putting odd pieces of wearing aparel on putting on single articles of dress [words crossed out] [words crossed out], it may be a jacket a waistcoat & perhaps a old hat without anything [insert crossed out] else In their original state they ornament themselves by various colourings made of red or yellow ochre [words crossed out] or partly pf pipeclay on their chests and on the cheeks. This will serve for coroborries & also for [crossed out: fights] war excursions, when for war their colors seem to laid on more thickly especially on the face & under the eyes & in such a way as to give themselves a very wild appearance. The yellow topknot of the [indecipherable] Cockatoo is stuck in front of the head as an ornament. The White pipe clay color serves as a sign of mourning. The women wear beads, often long & numerous strings of them, made of seeds & grasses, but their most extraordinary ornament, if such it may be called, is a plain piece of slender bone [crossed out: about six inches] from 4 to 6 inches in length worn through the nose across the face, the septum or curving part between the nostrils having a hole cut through. [word crossed out] Another ornament no less ridiculous in our eyes are those raised marks or scars which they [indecipherable] both on the chest and on the back just behind the shoulders; on the chest they are usually running in parrallel lines crossways & brought about by a rather painful & gradual operation; they rip up the skin, formerly with sharp edges of stones or pointed pieces of wood, now mostly with broken pieces of glass.

This first cut is again & again lacerated [crossed out: & kept safe open] and not allowed to heal. In some months until the flesh is [crossed out: so raised] sufficiently raised as to appear when closed up as if little cords were lain across the chest & grown over by the skin. the most remarkable performance of theirs is the way they climb trees of almost any span. They cut above them little notches & sufficient for the large toe to rest on, & then they [indecipherable] step by step. In hunting & fishing they are very expert & were they less indolent they might often provide themselves better with food than they do. They throw their various weapons such as the Boomerang with much precision either after [crossed out: [indecipherable]] quadrupedes such as the Wallabi or birds in the air, and it is susprising how keen they are in discovering whether an opposum is in a tree. They will for instance asertain with their quick eyes from the little scratches on the back of the tree whether the animal, after going up has come down again. In tracking each other they are no less [crossed out: shrewd] quick & sharp. They mostly can tell each other's foot marks, no wonder Europeans are so glad to employ them to track horses & in further [indecipherable] to track bushrangers.

Fish they sometimes spear [word crossed out] often they catch them with their hands.[words crossed out] On the larger rivers, such as the Barwon, they have nets. Their utensils consist almost entirely in wooden vessels of smaller or larger size [words crossed out] [words crossed out] varying [margin: a block of wood is hollowed out with much perseverance] from a quart or two to three or four gallons in measure, to fetch water in. Warm water in their original state is made by hot stones being successively ]thrown into their vessels of water. Fire they make [crossed out: with two pieces of wood] by means of friction, for instance, they will lay a flat piece on the ground or on a stone & take a pointed stick twirling it around upon the flat peice like a spindle so as to bore a hole into it continuing the action till the wood ignites. But you may guess they prefer to this tedious method of making fire the flint & steel or else matches if they are shown them from Europeans. As mimicks they excel, they have a surprising aptitude to imitate any thing [crossed out: Strange as] odd & ridiculous they may notice, since they not infrequently amuse themselves by mimicking any oddities they notice in Europeans. At the

same time they are fond of applying nicknames both to [crossed out: them] some of their own people and to Europeans. There is scarcely a European known to them for whom they do not invent some ridiculous but expressive name or appellation indicative of a peculiarity they may notice in him, whether in his build or gair or the expression [in margin: the corpulent, the bowlegged] of his countenance or his doings or his peculiar accent or twang in speaking. Canibalism, there is no doubt, ha sometimesoccurred amongst them, but certainly was never so general as among the New Zealanders & [indecipherable] But I must hasten to the conclusion lest I should weary you and will finish with a description of their peculiar form of government which I would call, patriarchal-democratic, if such a term may be used, that is to say, the elderly men are the chief rules and often hold meetings of consultation to decide questions of dispute or causes of war, but the younger men say from 25 upwards are also admitted & have a voice in the matter. At these meetings they often make long speeches; the speaker not always but mostly rises & often speaks with much animation sometimes they speak more calmly not without a degree of dignity & even gracefulness. But if they cannot agree upon any point, the minority are not always [indecipherable] by the [In the margin: with the Boomerang in his hand] decision of the majority. They may decide on a war-excursion against another tribe, yet they cannot always force those who are opposed