CURIOUS POSTURES. 61 



numerous and very large, in others smaller, and 

 they all appeared irregularly arranged, and differ- 

 ently on each individual. Their bodies are sin- 

 gularly erect, and their gestures and motions easy 

 and free, often assuming postures that no European, 

 except a professed tumbler, could throw himself into. 

 I observed one old man to-day sitting for an hour 

 together with his heels close under him, one thigh 

 lying flat out on the ground on one side of him, and 

 the other thigh raised close to his body, with the 

 knee under the arm-pit. Another frequent posture 

 is to stand on one leg, with the foot of the other 

 resting against the knee, and this appears to be a 

 posture of rest. The women are smaller than the 

 men, but of the same make, both being equally 

 lanky, with straight hips and sides and thin legs, so 

 that when viewed from behind at a little distance, 

 it is difficult to tell a woman from a man. The 

 women did not appear to be scarred, or to have lost 

 a tooth. In the old woman the breasts were small, 

 but flat and pendant, and connected by a loose fold 

 of skin. In the younger ones the breasts were full, 

 but small and conical, instead of hemispherical. 

 Their carriage is as erect as the men's, with a kind 

 of strutting gait. The only sign of clothing among 

 them was a small rug, made of two or three opos- 

 sum skins neatly sewn together : one man held this 

 in his hand. 



Their string was made of a tough grass, very 

 neatly twisted, and when a little worn, it looked at 

 first sight very like our twine. Their armlets were 



