29 



by the operator's foot. The method is very apparent in pi. x., 

 fig. 2, the original of which was given to me by Mr. W. 

 Hoitze. 



Smoking. 



The habit of smoking in these districts, as elsewhere in 

 Australia, has become a passion among the tribes that come 

 into contact, directly or indirectly, with Europeans and 

 Asiatics. When the original supply of tobacco has run out 

 the pipe of one of a group of men is crushed between two 

 stones, and the powder and ashes thus obtained smoked in 

 other pipes. This is repeated down to the last pipe, when it, 

 too, is crushed, and the powder rolled up in dry palm-leaf 

 and smoked like a cigarette. 



They have also invented a pipe of their own by bri-aking 

 off the protoconc of Tiirritella cerea, and filling tobacco into 

 the mouth of the last body-whorl of the shell. The smoke is 

 then inhaled by suction through the convolutions of the shell. 



Opium pipes are made out of empty bottles. Having 

 secured a bottle, a native will patiently tap round a certain 

 spot with a pointed implement until he has drilled a small 

 hole through its side. A little opium (usually the third-hand 

 remnants from the pipe of a Chinaman) is placed beside the 

 orifice, ignited, and the smoke drawn into the mouth through 

 the neck of the bottle. 



Habitations. 



As in Central Australia, habitations are only used under 

 extreme climatic conditions. 



The usual plan is to construct a dome-like framework or 



skeleton of flexible branches as depicted in the sketch (fig. 



21), the joints at each intersection 



being made secure with strands of 



hybiscus bark. This structure"^ is 



covered with paper-bark and grass, 



leaving the one side open for access. 



See pi. ix. The floor of the interior. 



too, is carpeted with the same 



Fig. 21. material, with the exception of a 



small space left for the fire. The 



structure measures 5 ft. by 5 ft. by 4 ft. high, and is called 



=^ Stokes found similar structures at Cape Hotham. and also 

 at King's Sound: Vide Discoveries in Australia. 1846. vol. i.. 

 p. 406. Wickham observed huts on Denuch Island, off the north- 

 west coast of Australia, which 'Svere constructed by fixing 

 boughs and twigs in the ground in a circular form, and joining 

 the smaller ends overhead in the form of a beehive" : Journ"^ 

 Rov. Geogr. Soc. London, vol. xii.. 1842. See also W. E. Roth • 

 Ethnological Studies, pp. 105 to 107: nl. xii. 



