NEW SOUTH WALES. 11 



importance, that children even of two years 

 old are taught the use of it. The natives of 

 this country have various ornaments; with 

 gum, they fasten to their hair, fish-bones, birds' 

 feathers, slips of wood, dogs'- tails, and the 

 teeth of the kangaroo ; those on the South of 

 Botany Bay, plat the hair with gurri, like pieces 

 of rope, and, occasionally, they daub themselves 

 with red and white clay, the latter previous to 

 dancing, and the former to battle. The forms 

 of these imagined ornaments are governed by 

 the taste of the person ; and really, those who 

 excel in this plastic art, look like spectres. 

 Scars are by both sexes deemed highly orna- 

 mental, inasmuch, that they are proud to have 

 wounds made with shells, and as they keep 

 these open the flesh grows up on each side, and 

 then suffering it to skin over, it forms the 

 honourable badge of a wale or seam. This 

 operation is generally performed when young 4 , 

 and though for many years they continue full, 

 in the decline of life they become nearly invi- 

 sible. The hole, which is bored through the 

 nose, between the age of twelve and fifteen, is 

 only used on particular occasions to put the 

 reed or bone in ; this ceremony is generally 

 confined to the male, though there are instances 

 of the females undergoing the same mutilation. 

 The women suffer another operation when in- 

 fants, which is the loss of two joints of the 

 little finger on the left hand, this is effected by 

 a hair being tied round the joint, which stops 

 the circulation, when the part drops off in 



