296 CHARACTER OF NATIVES. 



of the head, however, is not so decisive a charac- 

 teristic as that of the body, because its aspect often 

 depends on the fashion of wearing and dressing it. 

 In any observations, therefore, upon these people 

 the short hair of the chest and limbs should be 

 remarked rather than that of the head. If the 

 people belong to the genuine frizzled-haired or 

 Papuan race, the skin will have a slightly woolly 

 aspect. These Australians at Cape York were 

 much more strongly scarred than is usual with the 

 islanders, several had the mark on the shoulder, 

 but instead of a mere mark it stood out in high 

 relief, and they had other strong scars on the breast, 

 back, and abdomen. 



In their intellectual qualities and dispositions 

 they were still farther removed from the islanders, 

 and much below those of Murray and Darnley 

 Islands. Houseless and homeless, without gardens, 

 or any kind of cultivation, destitute of the cocoa-nut, 

 the bamboo, the plantain, and the yam, as of almost 

 all useful vegetables, they pass their lives either 

 in the search for food, or in listless indolence. 

 Instead of associating with us on something like 

 terms of equality, bartering with us, teaching us 

 their words, and learning some of ours, laughing, 

 joking, and engaging in sports, like our Erroobian 

 friends, these Australians sat listlessly looking 

 on, standing where we told them, fetching any- 

 thing or doing anything we ordered them, with 

 great docility indeed, but with complete want of 



