THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA. 263 



length and thickness, some being about an inch long and raised the 

 thickness of a straw, others perhaps three inches in length and as 

 thick as one's finger. The operation to produce these marks consists 

 simply in cutting the part quickly but slightly with the sharp point 

 of the stone ; the blood is allowed to dry on the wound, but the welts 

 soon appear and never diminish in size through life. 



From the scantiness of an Australian's wardrobe, he is prevented 

 from exhibiting his taste or expending his vanity in a variety of cos- 

 tume, he consequently falls back to the one course left open to him, 

 that of painting his body and decorating his head. The greater part 

 of the time he devotes to his toilet is altogether taken up in plastering 

 his uncut hair with a thick cement made of red ochre and grease. A 

 diversity of style is adopted in its dressing ; some have the head 

 covered with quantities of small and shining red ringlets, some have 

 it bound around with cord, and then covered with a solid mass of 

 stiff and clay-like pomatum, giving the head quite an Asiatic appear- 

 ance ; this is generally surmounted by a bunch of feathers from the 

 emu or cockatoo, or by the tail of the wild dog, and sometimes en- 

 circled with a wreath of flowers. Others, again, have innumerable 

 small lumps of clay appended to the ends of the hair, which keep up a 

 rattling accompaniment to the movements of the wearer. 



But of all outward adornments the beard is the one most coveted 

 and prized. Indeed, this appendage to the visage appears to be a youth- 

 ful Australian's highest ambition, and its primary symptoms are re- 

 garded by each stripling much in the same light as, amongst us, the 

 school-boy looks on his assumed induction to the honors and privi- 

 leges of manhood. To the Australian, throughout life, the beard is an 

 object of great pride and care, and the affectionate manner in which it 

 is ever caressed and stroked, evinces the satisfaction felt in its bushy 

 charms. Xor is it merely as an adornment to the outward man that a 

 beard is so much an object of solicitude; there are also certain rights 

 attached to it, not the least important of which is, that no man can get 

 married until in the possession of one, nor is he allowed to kill an emu. 

 In their combats, too, no inconsiderable part is assigned to the beard 

 in producing an effect, and it is next to impossible to make an impres- 

 sion in an affair of this kind without such an accompaniment ; then, 

 with its long ends gathered up into the mouth, and there held firmly 

 between the lips — -with feet stamping, eyes starting from their sock- 

 ets, and every muscle of the body quivering with savage rage, it may 

 easily be imagined that the whole appearance of the Australian war- 

 rior is ferocious in the extreme. 



