BY WALTER E. ROTH, M.R.C.S., B.A., OXON. 61 



and what a brave man he was. This form of self-adulation was 

 very common, and after his hearers had applauded another man 

 would take his place, and give a similar recitation culled 

 from his autobiographical memoirs. Even when starting out 

 from camp of a morning, surrounded only by his own immediate 

 family, a black, after shaking his spears, would very generally 

 tell his wife and children what he intended doing during the 

 day; bow many kangaroos, etc., he proposed bringing home; 

 how he would fight any one who dared oppose him, and vaunted 

 himself upon his pluck, courage and endurance. Indeed, judg- 

 ing from what these aboriginals said of themselves, their lives 

 must have been quite Homeric. In the ordinary corrobborees, 

 which always took place in the neighbourhood of the camp 

 about a couple of hours after sundown, the men only took 

 part, while the dancing was of a stamping movement ; the 

 reverberation of the sandy ground was once indicated by the 

 mercury in Austin's artificial horizon when at a distance of fully 

 over a hundred yards. As decoration, feather down was stuck 

 over their faces and bodies upon the stripes of red ochre grease, 

 and pipe-clay. The plays usually performed represented emu 

 and kangaroo-hunting, etc., though various other personal 

 adventures, with embellishments, were depicted. The audience 

 at these entertainments consisted in the main of women, 

 children and old men. Some of the women in the squatting 

 position beat time with the flats of their hands, or with sticks, 

 upon the cloaks stretched tightly across their knees. Others 

 again would stand up and beat their yam-sticks, etc., held 

 crosswise over their heads. 



They never employed roads or bridges, though, for instance, 

 a log lying (not placed designedly) across a creek might be 

 utilised for the purpose. They were expert swimmers, hand- 

 over-hand fashion, like a dog. When on land their ordinary 

 property did not consist of anything more than what they 

 could carry. On the walk-about, halts were made generally 

 at some very dry stage, the nature of the timber giving them 

 some good idea of the substratum. When " at home," the 

 increasing remnants of old refuse, the superfluity of- ants, or 

 scarcity of food in general, were causes operating to compel 

 them to shift the sites of their camps. The general arrange- 

 ment of the camp itself was crescentic, with the "horns" 

 towards the fires ; each hut, from a few to a score of yards apart 



