BY W. W. FROGGATT. 655 



from the putrid body has fallen on them, it is all right ; but if 

 one is soiled, then it is in the direction to which that stick points |i 



that the murderer lives, and they then and there decide upon the 

 best means of killing him. 



The coast tribes do not build huts, but make mosquito-pits to J 



defend themselves from these terrible pests, which swarm over | 



the low-lying coast country. Digging a circular hole in the sand ^ 



about two feet deep, they roof it over with sticks and paper-bark, 

 finally covering it all over with sand except a small aperture on .^ 



the side, through which they crawl ; and then, stuffing the hole ■ 



with grass, they lie all night in this substitute for a mosquito-net, 

 packed like herrings. 



M 



These natives, beside the flint-headed spears, use a sharp y 



hunting spear, two different kinds of boomerang, one, which is ;, 



irresrularlv shaped, beine used for strikinsf fish in shallow water. i' 



I 

 Their scanty dress only differs from that of the inland men in i, 



being a |)earl shell ground down into an oval, and fastened round 

 the waist with a hair band. Their language seems to be com- 

 pounded of several dialects, as they often have two or three 

 words for the same thing. Marboo, inland, means good ; Jibe 

 is good also on the coast. Nunity and curdimen both mean 

 dead. They can only count to four — winjarrar, one ; coojarra, 

 two ; coojarra-lina, three ; coojan-a-coojarra, four ; after which, 

 though the number may be five or fifty, the word is all the same. 

 Some words have been invented since the white men came 

 into the country, as cookenjerrie, sheep ; bulanian, a cow ; 

 yowder, a horse ; and chilaman, a gun. The woolshed is 

 lamingar-miar ; lamingar hair, and miar a house (the hair- 

 house). Millie means white ; thus, Millie-millie means a letter 

 or book. Some of their words have quite a musical sound, 

 as minniewarrar, by-and-bye ; jimerillia, all the same as. They 



