BEGINNING AS A COLLECTOR 35 



one of the blacks get five or six scrub turkeys in 

 succession whilst going through the scrub. 



After staying on the Bloomfield River about three 

 months we moved our camp to Cedar Bay, where we 

 were the only white people and where I had the 

 opportunity of observing the Australian aboriginal 

 practically free from white interference. He is in 

 my opinion a very good type of native, manly, 

 plucky, honest, and truthful, though very lazy, except 

 for work in which he happens to be interested. I 

 have found Grey's observations on the Australian 

 aborigines generally correct in my experience. The 

 natives at Cedar Bay had exactly the equipment 

 he describes as characteristic : " Round the man's 

 middle is wound, in many folds, a cord spun from the 

 fur of the opossum, forming a warm, soft and elastic 

 belt of an inch in thickness, in which are stuck his 

 stone hatchet, his boomerang, and a short heavy 

 stick to throw at small animals. His hatchet is so 

 placed, that the head of it rests exactly on the centre 

 of his back, whilst its thin, short handle descends 

 along the backbone. In his hand he carries his 

 throwing stick, and several spears, headed in two or 

 three different manners so that they are equally 

 adapted to war or the chase. . . . The contents 

 of the native woman's bag are : A flat stone to pound 

 roots with; earth to mix with the pounded roots; 

 quartz for the purpose of making spears and knives ; 

 stones for hatchets; prepared cakes of gum, to make 



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