174 



AUSTRALIAN PICTURES. 



painting a shield. The curiously shaped huts of the North Australian blacks 

 form characteristic objects in the engraving. 



The engraving on page 166 of a corroboree in the far north is from a 

 photograph by Mr. P. Foelsche, at Port Essington. The males group them- 

 selves as shown in our illustration, and stamp the ground with both feet 

 simultaneously, making a peculiar sound, and keeping tune with a guttural 

 exclamation. The first who sounds a false note or misses a beat leaves the 

 group amidst the ridicule of the bystanders, and this process is continued 

 until the number of performers is reduced to a pair, who divide the honours. 

 These northern tribes are guilty of revolting acts of cannibalism. 



A Native Encampment in Queensland. 



No keener observers of nature in 

 the world are to be found than the 

 Australian blacks. Their gaze is 

 microscopic rather than extensive. 

 They have no appreciation of natural beauty and taste ; but their attention is 

 directed to the broken twig, the crushed grass, the displaced stone, the light 

 impression — to anything and everything that may reveal the proximity of a 

 foe or the presence of food. No such trackers exist anywhere. Celebrity 

 has recently been thrust upon them. In 1880 a gang of marauders took to 

 the bush in Victoria. They committed many daring crimes, and the police 

 were unable to check or to capture them, though the best men in the force 

 were employed, and tens of thousands of pounds were spent. 



The idea of employing black trackers was mooted, and some of the 



