166 Manners and Customs of the Australian Natives, 



breasts, a condition sufl&ciently accounted for by their early 

 marriages, their insufficient nourishment, their carrying of 

 heavy biu'dens, and the length of time they suckle their 

 children, for it is by no means uncommon for children to 

 take the breast for three or four years, or even longer. 



Although a superficial observer will scarcely be able, on 

 account of the apparently great similarity prevailing among 

 them, to detect any difference in them, a closer intimacy 

 with them will easily trace very considerable varieties, 

 not of countenances and forms of body only, but also of 

 colours and skins even ; while the skin of the tribes of the 

 north, which inhabit a rather scrubby country, is darker and 

 drier in appearance, that of the tribes of the south and the 

 westward, in many instances, approaches to what is termed 

 the copper colour. Whether this is attributable to the influ- 

 ence of the climate or the difii"erence of the food, it is difficult to 

 decide. My valued friend, the Rev. Mr. Schurmann, however, 

 is inclined towards the opinion, that upon the whole the best 

 fed and most robust natives are of the lighter colours. 



In reference to this subject. Dr. Livingstone makes the 

 following remark in his '' Missionary Travels and Researches 

 in South Africa " (page 78) : — '' Heat alone does not produce 

 blackness, but heat with moisture seems to insure the deepest 

 hue.^^ He found that tribes living in the desert of Africa 

 were of a lighter coloiu* than those near the rivers. 



The covering they generally wear consists of one or two 

 kangaroo skins only, and seldom of rugs made of skins of 

 the wallaby, opossum, and similar animals, and which for 

 this purpose are prepared in the following manner : — Tlie 

 skin, directly after being flayed, is spread — the flesh side 

 upwards — on an even smooth piece of ground, and fastened 

 by small wooden pegs, driven in along the ridges; when dried 

 the small fleshy fibres adhering to the skins are scraped ofl" 

 with a sharp angular piece of quartz, and afterwards the 

 skins are well rubbed over with a coarse-grained stone, for 

 the purpose of making them soft and pliable. Thus prepared, 

 the skins are then sewed together with the sinews of the 

 tail of the kangaroo, a small sharp-pointed bone answering 

 admirably for the purpose. As these skins are never tanned, 

 the natives are required to be very careful in guarding the 

 flesh side against the wet, as it would make them hard and 

 stift"; on this account it is that during the rain the hairy side 

 is turned outside. The best rugs generally belong to the 

 women, and more particularly so if they liavc young children. 



