1900. ] MATHEWS—TRIBES OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 125 
In the northeastern corner of western Australia, comprising the 
region watered by the Ord River and its tributaries, Sturt Creek, 
Margaret river and the Upper Fitzroy, are a number of native 
tribes, particulars of whose divisions and the limits of their territory 
are described in papers which I have communicated to different 
learned societies. 
In all the country dealt with in the present article, with the ex- 
ception of a strip along the western coast from about Geraldton to 
Onslow, all the youths are circumcised. Some time after their 
recovery they must submit to a further mutilation, consisting of 
splitting open the urethral canal from a point a little way from the 
scrotum almost to the glans, but leaving the latter intact, the inci- 
sion being about two inches in length. In some tribes the glans is | 
also split, the cut being carried right into the urinary orifice. After 
a man recovers from the effects of splitting the penis he is allotted 
a boy who has not yet been operated upon. This youth is a brother 
of the woman whom the man is entitled to claim as his wife. The 
boy is used for purposes of masturbation and sodomy, and con- 
stantly accompanies the man. 
The natives who inhabit the barren desert country are much in- 
ferior to the coast tribes, both in personal appearance and in their 
weapons and utensils. Their mode of camping at night during the 
cold months of the winter is as follows: They scoop out a circular 
depression in the sand, about eighteen inches deep, the diameter 
varying with the number of individuals who are to use it. In this 
depression they light a fire, and gradually replace the sand they 
have scooped out until it is all sufficiently heated. At bedtime 
each person scrapes a trench in the warm sand and lies down with- 
out any clothing, letting the loose sand fall in around his body, 
except the face. A man, with his wives and children, would per- 
haps occupy one of these sleeping places, several young men 
another, some unmarried or old women another, and so on. It 
not unfrequently happens that pebbles are mixed with the sand, 
and these retain the heat fora longer time. Although not suffi- 
ciently hot to burn the skin of the sleepers, yet on lying against a 
person’s body for a long time they raise blisters, which sometimes 
become sores, especially on the tender skin of children. No fire is 
kept alight during the night, but on emerging from their lairs in 
the morning fires are lit to cook any animal food they may have on 
hand. 
