176 



CUSTOMS OF THE ABORIGINES. 



and are prepared, when recently taken from the 

 animal, by stretching them out upon the ground 

 with small wooden pegs, the inner side being- 

 scraped with a shell, until they are rendered 

 perfectly clean and pliable. The skins when 

 dry are stitched neatly together, with thread 

 made from the long tendons of the muscles 

 about the tail of the kangaroo; (which when 

 dried are capable of being divided into threads 

 of almost any degree of fineness ;) the needle 

 is formed of a piece of bone ; and a number 

 of these skins sewn together form the cloaks 

 in general use. Among both males and females 

 many have a sort of tatauing, or ornamental 

 marks scratched upon the inner part of the 

 cloak, according to the taste of the owner. 



Both sexes have the septum naris perforated, 

 in which a piece of straw, stick, or emu-bone is 

 worn, looking like what Jack would term a 

 '' spritsail yard ;" this practice is universal among 

 the whole of the tribes seen in the colony, and 

 is regarded as highly ornamental. I have be- 

 fore alluded to the loss of an incisor tooth of 

 the upper jaw, observed among the adult male 

 natives ; this, on inquiry, I found proceeded 

 from a custom existing among them, (which is 

 attended at the time with much ceremony,) of a 

 male, on attaining the age of manhood, having 



