AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 



CHAPTER N. 



CLOTHING. 



The aborigines are very fond of anointing tlieir bodies and their hair with the 

 fat of animals, and toasting themselves before the fire till their skin absorbs it. 

 In order to protect their bodies from the cold, they mix red clay with the oily fat 

 of emus,— which is considered the best, — or with that of water fowls, opossums, 

 grubs, or toasted eel skins, and rub themselves all over with the mixture. Owing 

 to this custom very little clothing is necessary. 



During all seasons of the year both sexes walk about very scantily clothed. 

 In warm weather the men wear no covering during the day time except a short 

 apron, not unlike the sporran of the Scotch Highlanders, formed of strips of 

 opossum skin.s with the fur on, hanging from a skin belt in two bunches, one in 

 front and the other behind. In winter they add a large kangaroo skin, fur side 

 inwards, which hangs over the shoulders and down the back like a mantle or 

 short cloak. This skin is fastened round the neck by the hind legs, and is fixed 

 with a pin made of the small bone of the hind leg of a kangaroo, ground to a fine 

 point. Sometimes a small rug made of a dozen skins of the opossum or young 

 kangaroo is worn in the same way. 



Women use the opossum rug at all times, by day as a covering for the back 

 and shoulders, and in cold nights as a blanket. When they are obliged to go out 

 of doors in wet weather, a kangaroo skin is substituted for the rug. A girdle or 

 short kilt of the neck feathers of the emu, tied in little bunches to a skin cord, 

 is fastened round the loins. A band of plaited bark surrounds the head, and 

 pointed pins, made of wood or of the small bones of the hind foot of the 

 kangaroo, are stuck upright at each side of the brow, to keep up the hair, which 

 is divided in front and laid over them. 



Beds are made of dry grass laid on the ground ; and in summer the body is 

 covered with a thin grass mat, or a sprinkling of loose dry grass, but in cold 

 weather a wallaby or opossum rug is used in addition. In rare instances the rug 

 is made of skins of the ring-tailed opossum. 



