BY JAMES C. COX, M.D., F.L.S., ETC. 635 



seen them, that these Natives had been circumeised, but such is 

 not the case, the prepuce being cut shrinks back as the wound 

 heals by cicatrization along the slit up urethra. It is asserted by 

 some of the white settlers of tliis district that many of the gins 

 undergo some operation to prevent them bearing children, but as 

 far as Mr. Bloomtield's observations went, he saw nothing to 

 corroborate this supposition ; they undergo however an operation 

 by which the nipples are cut off tlie breasts, with what object it 

 is difPicult to conjecture, but tliero seems good reason to believe 

 tliat the children born from such mothers are all given up fov 

 food to the tribe ; all these tribes Avere found to be undoubted 

 cannibals, possibly from necessity, as there is great difhculty in 

 their being able to procure much flesh of any kind, opossums 

 and kangaroo are scarce ; tlieir principal forjd b3ing rats, lizards, 

 snakes, birds, mussels, and roots. The Calcadoon and Mithure 

 tribes use spears with and without barbs, made ofhard wood, 

 but not so stout as spears found with other Natives, and they are 

 thrown with a AVomera ; they use also a Boomerang of a short 

 kind with equall}^ bent ends, but their principal way of capturing 

 the stronger kinds of game is by verj- long nets, made from thick 

 cord twisted by hand out of the bark of a shrub ; the seed of the 

 grass is collected by thrashing, and it is then rubbed into a flour 

 on a fctone and made into cakes. The stone tomahawk and flint 

 knife are the only cutting implements found amongst them. It 

 is an interesting fact that all these tribes were found in possession 

 of what is known as Pltchurie as it is not known to grow in the 

 district, but they did not smoke it, as Mr. Brown observed tliom 

 on the North-west of Fort Bourke, but chew it alone, a f[uid of 

 it was passed round from one to another to chew, and when tire 1 

 of it it is plastered behind the ears. 



The gins of the Calcadoon tribe had the two front teeth always 



knocked out, and both men and woaien have their noses perforated 



and are tattood — they make their dilly bags generally of human 



hair. The}" use snares of a peculiar kind for the capture of the 



4 C 



