11 



his foot which, according to his own statement, came o£ its own 

 accord. Our medical officer here attended to it for upwards of 

 six months ; occasionally the wound got smaller, but always 

 opened out again, and would not heal up, iVt last the native 

 got tired of this treatment and applied the resinous substance 

 mentioned above. At this time the wound was about one-and-a- 

 half inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide, but not 

 deep ; in about a fortnight's time he removed the plaster, when 

 the wound was properly healed. 



Snahehite is treated by putting ligatures some distance above 

 and below the wound, and then open the largest artery in the 

 vicinity of the bite with a sharp stone, shell, or other sharp 

 instrument ; several incisions are made until copious bleeding 

 is the result, the ligatures are not removed for two or three 

 days, when the patient is all right. I have never heard of a 

 native dying from a snakebite. 



On inquiry why the cuts are not made immediately over the 

 bite, it was explained that the poison entered numerous small 

 blood vessels which all run into larger ones through which 

 it is disseminated through the whole body ; thus it shows the 

 natives have some knowledge of the anatomy of the human 

 body. Bleeding is considered a cure for all sorts of pains in 

 the head or limbs, and is resorted to very freely. This paragraph 

 on diseases and their cures relates more particularly to the 

 tribes in the neighbourhood of Port Darwin. 



Doctors. — The tribes in the neighbourhood of Port Darwin 

 have all recognised doctors, consisting of both men and women, 

 but their knowledge of diseases is very limited, and the 

 remedies they apply are very few, and what they cannot cure 

 with them, they pretend to cure by charms. The remedies for 

 diseases described in the preceding paragraphs are known to 

 and practised by nearly all the elder members of the tribes, 

 and acknowledged doctors pretend chiefly to cure internal 

 diseases. 



These doctors teach their pretended knowledge only to their 

 own children, who again teach their children. This accounts 

 for there being female doctors who are considered to possess 

 all the qualities the men doctors do. 



HrMAI^ FAT. 



J^early all natives use fat obtained from dead bodies of either 

 their own or other tribes for anointing themselves with, which 

 they believe makes them strong and able to fight well. The 

 fat taken from all parts of the body is mixed with red ochre to 

 prevent it melting away. It is then tied in paper-bark, and in 

 this state is distributed among the men, and very often some 

 is sent to other tribes. It is not used by women, nor have I 

 ever heard of its bein^: eaten. 



