^o6 



CAPE YORK. 



side of this groove or form large leaves of a Fan Palm were 

 here and there stuck up at an angle so as to form a shelter, 

 under which the Blacks huddled together at night to sleep. 



A camp of this shape with a slight mound inside, and a bank 

 outside, formed involuntarily by primitive man, may have given 

 the first idea of the mound, the ditch, and rampart. The large 

 amount of wood-ashes accumulated in such a camp, accounts 

 for their occurrence in such large quantities in kitchen-middens, 

 where camping must have been in the same style. A good 

 many shells brought from the shore lay here and there about 

 the camp. 



There were besides in the neighbourhood remains of shelters 

 of the common Australian form, long huts made of bushy 

 branches set at an angle to meet one another above, and 

 partially covered with palm-leaves and grass ; these the Blacks 



used occasionally. 



In the daytime the 

 young women and the 

 men were usually away 

 searching for food, but 

 two miserable old 

 women, reduced nearly 

 to skeletons, but with 

 protuberant stomachs, 

 with sores on their 

 bodies and no clothing 

 but a narrow bit of dirty 

 mat, were always to be 

 seen sitting huddled up 

 in the camp. These 



OLD WOMAN, CAPE YORK. ^^0^ lOOkcd Up at 3. 



From a rough sketch by Lieut. A. Channer, R.N.) visitor with an appa- 

 rently meaningless stare, 

 but only to see if any tobacco or biscuit were going to be 

 given them ; they exhibited no curiosity, but only scratched 

 themselves now and then with a pointed stick. 



The younger women had all of them a piece of some Euro- 

 pean stuff round their loins. Some of the men had tattered 

 shirts, but one, who acted as my guide, was invariably abso- 

 lutely without clothing, as was his son, who always accompanied 

 him. The only property to be seen about the camp were a 

 few baskets of plaited grass, in the making of which the old 

 women were sometimes engaged, and which were used by the 

 gins for collecting food in. Two large Cymbium shells, with 

 the core smashed out, had been used also to hold food or 

 water, but were now replaced for the latter purpose Ijy square 



