324 CHRISTMAS DAY. 



themselves perfectly happy. Several tribes had 

 formed their encampment on and about the Plains, 

 for the occasion; their huts had been speedily 

 erected, by collecting the branches of trees, and ly- 

 ing over them sheets of bark, so placed as to form 

 a shelter to windward ; the fire being made in 

 front. Some appeared in "native costume," 

 with an extra daub of red ochre, and the " bo- 

 lombine" round the head ; others wore tufts of 

 the yellow crest of the white cockatoo, pending 

 from their beards ; but there were some who ap- 

 proximated to civilized society in dress, being 

 arrayed in shirt, trowsers, and handkerchief ; — 

 and when thus cleanly "rigged out" in Euro- 

 pean finery, their personal appearance was 

 not unprepossessing, — not that I mean to say they 

 will bear awa^^ the palm for personal beauty. 



Some of the " black fellers" had merely a 

 jacket, others only a shirt : the garments, how- 

 ever, were merely put on for the occasion, to be 

 soon after laid aside, as they find clothing mate- 

 rially obstruct them when engaged in hunting or 

 other expeditions. The putting on the European 

 garments serves merely to gratify their vanity, 

 making them look " like white feller," as they 

 express it. Having observed, to one who peti- 

 tioned me for a pair of " inexpressibles," to look 



