300 



their legs, with tiie feet over a yard apart, jumped three or four 

 times to the right and then the same number of times in the 

 opposite direction, jumping in unison and with each jump giving 

 a shout of joy that sounded like "hau." This they repeated 

 three times, at intervals of a few minutes, whilst retiring, but 

 each time turning round to face us ; the tallest of them holding 

 the bag with the meat outstretched over the head at full 

 arms' length. All had one of the central incidors knocked out, 

 were circumcised, and had tattoo scars on chest, back, or arms. 

 Whether they were otherwise mutilated I could not ascertain, 

 because they would hardly allow themselves to be touched. I 

 did not notice the yellow stain on the lips and mouth caused by 

 the use of tobacco, and it may, therefore, not be known to them, 

 although the conditions about the soakages seem to be favorable 

 for a luxuriant growth of the plant. 



Src/ September (Camp 40, Victoria Desert). — We came to camp 

 at about 2 p.m., having just before caught a little native girl of 

 about five to six years of age. She screamed terribly when she 

 saw us approach. The poor little thing trembled in all her limbs, 

 when we got hold of her, and she handed us immediately the 

 large lizard she had in her hand. When the caravan came up 

 she received some water, of which she drank greedily, became 

 pacified after that, and ate some of the sugar gi^■en to her. Later 

 she got some jam, and at times was incited to a smile, but she 

 submitted moie passively than otherwise to our treatment of her- 

 Everyone tried to be kind to her, and I got one of my little mir- 

 rors out, but the reflection of her face (which with adult indi- 

 viduals who have never seen this phenomenon before is generally 

 an amusing study to the observer) had no effect upon her — at 

 least she did not display any surprise. She was, however, much 

 interested in the regular impression from the nails of a new pair 

 of boots one of our party was wearing. Apparently, the almost 

 instinctive intuition of tracking was already highly developed in 

 her, and tracks so foreign to lier previous observations excited 

 her interest. She understood the word " kapi," and pointed in 

 a certain direction, and later in the afternoon took Messrs. 

 Lindsay and Wells straight to a rockhole about three miles away. 

 On returning from this water they met seven blacks, who appeared 

 to have threatened them at first, but who, after tlie child was 

 restored and received with a good deal of demonstration on their 

 part, were quite friendly, and accepted presents from our party. 

 I was informed that they came out of the mulga scrub only in 

 pairs at a time, which seems to prove them to have been fright- 

 (med rather than aggressive. 



4</t Sejjteviber. — Before breaking up camp this forenoon we 

 went over to the water pointed out by the little girl yesterday. 



