140 THEIR OBNAMENTS 



nose is invariably perforated, and the right central 

 incisor— rarely the left, is knocked out during child- 

 hood. Both sexes are more or less ornamented 

 with large raised cicatrices on the shoulders and 

 across the chest, abdomen, and buttocks, and outside 

 of the thighs. No clothing is at any time worn by 

 these people, and their ornaments are few in num- 

 ber. These last consist chiefly of wristlets of the 

 fibres of a plant— and armlets of the same, ^vound 

 round with cordage, are in nearly universal use. 

 Necklaces of fragments of reed strung on a thread, 

 or of cordage passing under the arms and crossed 

 over the back, and girdles of finely twisted human 

 hair, are occasionally worn by both sexes, and the 

 men sometimes add a tassel of the hair of the 

 opossum or flying squirrel, suspended in fi-ont. A 

 piece of stick or bone thrust into the perforation in 

 the nose completes the costume. Like the other 

 Australians, the Port Essington blacks are fond of 

 painting themselves with red, yellow, white, and 

 black, in different styles, considered appropriate to 

 dancing, fighting-, mourning, &c. 



These people construct no huts except du^ 

 the rainy season, when they put up a rude 

 temporary structure of bark. Their utensi 

 in number, consisting merely of fine baSf' 

 stems of a rush-hke plant, and others of the" 

 the leaf of the Seaforihia palm, the latter principally 

 used for containing water. Formerly bark canoes 

 were in g-eneral use, but they are now completely 



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