cj2 Voyage of the Novara. 



civilization, and even then only with its pioneers, the 

 squatters and shepherds. Among these the customs of cir- 

 cumcision and unlimited polygamy are universal, each man 

 having as many wives as he can steal or support. Owing, 

 however, to their nomad life, this system is practised to 

 but a limited extent. Infanticide, especially of female 

 children, is of very frequent occurrence. Abortion is also 

 so frequently practised that they have a word {3Iihra) to 

 express it ! On the other hand, we read in Count Strzelecki's 

 valuable work that "the female natives after illicit commerce 

 with a white man become barren for their own race," which, 

 according to all unbiassed observers, is a complete delusion. 



In no part of Australia do the natives cultivate the soil. 

 Nomad as is their mode of life, they live almost exclusively 

 on the products of the chase, or of the deep, according as 

 they live in the interior or on the coast. Lizards, snakes, 

 and insects, and some few roots and resinous substances, form 

 the delicacies of their primitive cookery. 



Their dwellings are either natural cavities in the rock, or 

 a few pieces of bark fixed into the ground at either end, and 

 arched upwards in the middle. Throughout New South 

 Wales the custom prevails, when a native dies young, of 

 burying him under a shallow mound of earth, only the elders 

 possessing the privilege of being consumed with fire. In the 

 latter case the corpse of the deceased, with his hunting and 

 fishing implements, is placed on a pile of dry wood about 

 three feet high, with his face towards the rising sun. This is 



