Geographical Collections. 231 



A piece of soft bark makes a drinking cup, the claw of a kangaroo serves 

 for a needle, and through a hollow rush, or the wing-bone of a bird, they 

 suck water, when they cannot conveniently reach it with their mouths. 



Their dances are described as being inelegant, and principally of a nature 

 to represent their various methods of killing game. They generally perform 

 these feats entirely naked, but exhibited them before the settlers with their 

 cloaks fastened round them. A fire is made on the spot where the dance 

 is to take place, and on one side of it is seated an old man. The dancers 

 then advance, and retire on the opposite side of the fire towards him, 

 stepping together, sometimes stooping, and moving their heads and bodies 

 in the most grotesque attitudes — shouting together, and each bearing a 

 green bough in his hand, which they finally deposit with the old man. This 

 grave personage assumes a very serious air during the ceremony, and gives 

 directions to the dancers as he pleases. The women, it seems, are not 

 allowed to dance with the men. 



Retaliation seems to be their principle in quarrels. If a man is killed, 

 his friends are content with the death of any one of the tribe to which the 

 aggressor belongs. If he should have been killed by accident, as falling 

 from a tree, his friends impute it to an adverse tribe, and kill one of them 

 in consequence. If a man is ill, and imagines he shall not recover, he 

 attempts to kill somebody, and fancies by so doing that he shall get well 

 again. Although their war implements are of a dangerous nature, they are 

 described as being by no means a warlike race of people. They are very 

 dexterous in avoiding the spear ; and in their wars with each other, generally 

 arising from quarrels about their women, they ai'e content with inflicting a 

 wound, which is a signal for battle to cease. When their attacks on each 

 other are intended to be fatal, they are generally made by stealth, and during 

 night ; and it is curious, that the friends of a person who may be killed in 

 this manner, (which is always by the spear,) are careful never to mention 

 his name, asserting that, if they do, it will raise his ghost. Should another 

 person have the same name as the deceased, he will immediately change it, 

 to avoid repeating it. They bury their dead, with much lamentation, in a 

 grave about a yard wide, four feet long, and about a yard in depth. The 

 bottom of the grave is covered with the bark of trees and green boughs. 

 The corpse is then placed in it, ornamented, and wrapped up in his cloak, 

 with the knees bent to the breast, and the arms folded across the body. 

 Green boughs are then laid over the body, then bark, and earth ; more boughs 

 are then placed on the earth, on which are laid his spears, knife, hammer, 

 and ornamental feathers. His womena, or throwing-stick, and curl, or 

 carved flat stick, are also stuck on each side of the mound. They also cut 

 circles in the trunks of the adjacent trees. Their mourning is either by 

 daubing their faces with black, or large blotches of white paint, particularly 

 on the foreheads, which they continue to wear a long time. The implements 

 of the women are also buried with them j but there is not so much ceremony 

 in their funerals as those of the men. 



The climate is reported, by Mr Nind, to be very favourable to vegetation ; 

 the crops are not only certain, but luxuriant, where the ground has been 

 manured. In all parts of the country, stagnant pools of water are found. 

 The prevailing rock in the vicinity of the settlement is granite. The 

 number of settlers in October, 1829, when Mr Nind left it, was 52. The 

 settlement is situated about the middle of the north shore of Princess Royal 

 harbour, at the foot of the low part of Mount Melville. The position of 

 it is considered very eligible, in many points of view, but it is destitute of 

 good timber, as well as good water. The soil is extremely barren near it, 

 being a pure white sand a few inches from the surface. 



Extract from the Log -Book of the ship Laytori; communicated to the 

 Royal Geographical Society The ship Layton, J. Hurst, master, in a 



t 



