64 NOTES ON SAVAGE LIFE, ETC., 



(Plate v., fi(i e). These cloaks were always worn in the winter 

 time, the wet season, i.e., June, July, and especially August. 

 If the parents chose to take the trouble they would clothe their 

 children with similar garments ; otherwise, the little ones would 

 have to make shift as best they could, each with a single skin. 



In the cold weather it was a common thing for the adults 

 to carry a lighted fire-stick under their mantles, to keep the 

 lower portion of the abdomen warm ; this stick was held in the 

 left hand, in between two pieces of bark, just like a coal in a 

 pair of tongs, and as it got burnt up, another would be picked 

 up and lighted as they went along. 



In connection with personal ornaments, it may be men- 

 tioned at the outset that married women wore nothing except 

 the cloak ; it was only the young, unmarried women and the 

 little children who occasionally sported necklaces in the form of 

 two or three rings of threaded grass-reed beads. Even the 

 various accoutrements to be immediately described as pertaining 

 to the men did not constitute any sort of corrobboree dress, 

 but were the " fashion " when travelling, or paying a visit to 

 one's neighbours. When necessary, the hair was cut with a 

 sharp quartz stone, but never cropped as short as the women's ; 

 the men cut their whiskers from between the ear and angle 

 of the jaw, so as to leave a beard and moustache, while some of 

 the older ones especially shaved the moustache only. There 

 was never avulsion of any teeth ; the nose was bored, but the 

 wearing of the nose-pin exceptional. 



(a) The ka-ta-band [cf. kata — the head) was a piece of 

 red-coloured opposum string, as thick as ordinary twine, wound 

 across the upper portion of the forehead, the thirty or forty 

 coils round the head forming a thick band about one and a-half 

 inches wide. 



(b) A dingo tail was often tied round over the kataband, 

 while 



(c) A bunch of feathers was often stuck into it. This bunch 

 was formed of the pinnules pulled from the stems of white 

 cockatoo or emu feathers, all tied tightly into a bundle, through 

 which a wooden skewer was plunged, 



((/) There was an armlet, always on the left arm, formed 

 of red opossum string, wound round and round at least a score 

 of times. Underneath it a bunch of feathers, without any 



