Notes on the Aborigines of North Australia. 



By Paul Foelsche, Inspector of Police, Northern Territory ; 

 Corr. Memb. 



[Bead August 2, 1881.] 



A good deal has from time to time been written about the 

 aborigines of Australia, and a vast amount of information on 

 this subject has been gathered from all the settled parts of 

 Australia ; but all that is known of the aborigines inhabiting 

 the northern portion of this continent has been furnished by a 

 few persons who hare paid only short visits to the north coast 

 of Australia, and consequently had not sufficient time to get 

 well acquainted with the natives, their habits and customs. I, 

 therefore, venture to supply a few notes on the above subject, 

 such as have come under my observation during eleven years* 

 residence in the jN'orthern Territory. They may be of no 

 great value, but when compared with the valuable paper on the 

 " Aborigines of 8outh Australia," by Mr. J. D. Woods, in 

 the Society's Transactions for 1879, may furnish some informa- 

 tion either in support of or against the supposition that the 

 aborigines all round the Australian coastline have sprung f n "u 

 one source, as well as some new facts hitherto not brought 

 under the notice of the Society. 



PHYSICAL CnARACTEKISTICS. 



The few accompanying portraits of men and women of 

 different tribes by way of illustration will show that the 

 physical characteristics of the natives inhabiting the north 

 coast of Australia vary considerably from those in the south, 

 especially as far as the features are concerned. The majority 

 of the men are well built, but the skin is smooth, and the 

 strong covering of hair all over the body so often met with 

 in the south is almost entirely absent on the north coast, at 

 least among those tribes with which I have come in contact ; 

 and the growth of hair on the face is very scanty, but on the 

 head it is invariably thick and curly, and I have met with 

 instances where it strongly resembles that of the Papuans, but 

 these are very rare. The women, as a rule, are not so stout as 

 in the south, and with a few exceptions the hair is not so curly 

 as that of the men. The hair of both sexes is, in my opinion, 

 not near so black as in the south ; but all this may be the 



