CLOAKS or SKINS. 



175 



appetites : the flesh of the animals at this time 

 preparing for dinner by our tawny friends 

 appeared delicate, and was no doubt excellent 

 eating, as the diet of the animals was in most 

 instances vegetable. 



The natives are as dirty in general habits 

 as in cookery, and this unclean race were often 

 seen as "chimney ornaments" in the settlers' 

 habitations, placing themselves on each side of 

 the fire-place, or almost in the hearth, to get 

 warm, looking like a huge piece of charred 

 wood, and forming objects neither useful nor 

 ornamental ; they have a great antipathy to any 

 thing like labour, (I do not mean to disparage the 

 race by this observation, for all uncultivated tribes 

 are similar in this respect,) and the only way to 

 get rid of them whenever they became trouble- 

 some, was to set them to work. 



Both sexes wear cloaks made from several 

 skins of the opossum, kangaroos, or other 

 animals joined together. In cold weather the 

 fur is worn turned inwards, making a warm 

 and comfortable garment ; neither males nor 

 females appear to regard it as a covering re- 

 quired for decency, but merely as a protection 

 against the inclemency of the weather, as it is 

 frequently thrown aside. The skins of either 

 the opossum or kangaroo are used for cloaks. 



