THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA. 259 



breast of his victim and then plunging into the woods, return to his 

 tribe, proudly boasting of his crafty deed. Or silently prowling about 

 in search of an oportunity of revenge, he will, probably, come upon 

 the wigwam at a time when the husband is away hunting, and the 

 wives and children are dozing around the fire, unconscious of all dan- 

 ger. Silently and serpent like, the blood-seeker nears his prey, then 

 springing into their midst, drives his spear into all that are unable to 

 escape. 



The principal, if not indeed the only, food of the Australian, is that 

 procured in the chase. His life, therefore, is necessarily a wandering 

 one, ever moving, as the scarcity of food, or other circumstances may 

 dictate. Policy has also no inconsiderable share in producing these 

 frequent changes. Por in thus roving over the country the Nomades 

 render it a more difficult matter for their prowling enemies to mark 

 their encampment, and to take advantage of an unguarded moment 

 to wreak their vengence. These changes also tend to free them from 

 smaller, but hardly less disagreeable neighbors, which always increase 

 at a prodigious rate, around a spot inhabited for any length of time 

 by a people totally void of everything like cleanliness. Thus influenc- 

 ed by the exigencies of the moment, on breaking up the establish- 

 ment they may, perhaps, move off for miles from the old position ; or 

 they may erect their new wigwams within sight of the old ones. 

 As these huts, however, are of the most simple description, and can be 

 finished in a workmanlike manner in a very short time, — their house- 

 hold furniture, too, being of the smallest quantity known in the eco- 

 nomy of house-keeping, — no very great inconvenience is experienced in 

 these constant movements. Their huts are chiefly formed of long 

 grass, rushes, the bark and branches of trees. Each one is sufficiently 

 large to admit of two or three persons curling themselves up inside 

 like so many hedgehogs. Their shape is that of an arch, the highest 

 part of them being about three feet from the ground, with the front 

 completely open, and sloping down gradually in the rear. To give a 

 better idea of one of these establishments, imagine a bowl or tea cup, 

 turned with the bottom upwards and then cut down through the cen- 

 tre, each half will be a minature model of an Australian mansion. 

 At all seasons, summer and winter this is their only shelter ; with but 

 a small fire in front, men, women, and children, each one coiled up in 

 the cloak of kangaroo skins, sleep through storm and tempest, and 

 set all weather at defiance. In their ordinary mode of living, and when 

 in their own district, the tribe is usually broken up into small parties 

 or families, each party forming an encampment, of some six or eight of 

 these wigwams. It is seldom that the tribe musters except when 



