19*6.] CORROBERY, OR NATIVE DANCE> 451 



tions, such as extending their arms and wriggling their bodies. 

 It was a most rude, barbarous scene, and, to our ideas, without 

 any sort of meaning ; but we observed that the black women 

 and children watched it with the greatest pleasure. Perhaps 

 these dances originally represented actions, such as wars and 

 victories ; there was one called the Emu dance, in which each 

 man extended his arm in a bent manner, like the neck of that 

 bird. In another dance, one man imitated the movements of a 

 kangaroo grazing in the woods, whilst a second crawled up, and 

 pretended to spear him. When both tribes mingled in the dance, 

 the ground trembled with the heaviness of their steps, and the 

 air resounded with their wild cries. Every one appeared in high 

 spirits, and the group of nearly naked figures, viewed by the 

 light of the blazing fires, all moving in hideous harmony, formed 

 a perfect display of a festival amongst the lowest barbarians. In 

 Tierra del Fuego, we have beheld many curious scenes in savage 

 life, but never, I think, one where the natives were in such high 

 spirits, and so perfectly at their ease. After the dancing was 

 over, the whole party formed a great circle on the ground, and 

 the boiled rice and sugar was distributed, to the delight of all. 



After several tedious delays from clouded weather, on the 

 14th of March, we gladly stood out of King George's Sound on 

 our course to Keeling Island. Farewell, Australia ! you are a 

 rising child, and doubtless some day will reign a great princess 

 in the South : but you are too great and ambitious for affection, 

 yet not great enough for respect. I leave your shores without 

 sorrow or regret. 



£ a 2 



