200 THE ABORIGINES OF NEW SOUTH WALES. - 
the Gringai, the Kamilaroi, and the Ooalaroi, and to these I adda 
slight knowledge of the Wiradjery and Yiin tribes. -As it is impos- 
sible within the limits of an essay to discuss fully so large a subject 
this, I will dwell upon those points which seem to admit of 
original investigation, and will omit altogether or Wigs af Tehty 
upon those features of my subject which are generally kn 
I.—Yovrts. 
An aboriginal child is heir to a tawny skin, “the vellum of the 
pedigree they claim,” and exposure to the air soon deepens the 
swarthiness. The depth of colour varies in different tribes, for 
some of them, according to my hypothesis, ha more purely 
Nigritian in their origin, while others are from mixed Lire 
ite race ; and tribes that have long dwelt in swam ‘i regions 
darker, while those occupying the uplands are lighter m pre 
than others. 
The advent of the baby is not always a source of joy to the 
e mother, in parturition, is left to the assistance 
one or two female friends, often left e eB alone, at. a little 
distance from the main camp, and ere long she joins her husband 
with or without the baby. If eit season has been hard and there 
is a scarcity of food, or if the mother is already burdened with 
many children or with heavy Roctin for her Boar the — one is 
left to perish. A native woman at 
several of her children in a and eet, after an mn interval 
* , soon after the arrival of the white mi 
in that district, paul the fans at their birth, but left a 
males to perish; they feared that these half-caste males, if 1 
grew to be men, would have the qualities of a superior a lk 
would be too intelligent, too strong, too dangero us for the 
and so suffered none of them to live. 
If én child mi 5 Meer the parents and even neighbours ma 
r it, weeping bitterly ; when they 
idea that an evil spirit, the Kroo haunts the “graves, : 
toe haa elm ‘At K cae ene infant ciao | 
the corpse in a thin sheet of bark and keep it over the sm og 
_ fire for about a fortnight ; the smoke-dried 
till twelve months after the birth ; ot Ges ee 
ers are very attentive to to their children ; they i 
carefully and continue to show them ed! token ce a pS 
They carry them on their backs, wrapped in a rug or BN” 
