MURRUMBIDGEE, LOWER LACHLAN, AND LOWER DARLING. 21 
twinkling brightly and the camp fires glowing, one of these old 
fellows will get up, nude as he came into the world (with the 
exception of his waist-belt, which is of the narrowest), place his 
to the fire, and with a grand flourish of his throwing-stick 
(which he holds in readiness to emphasise his flowing periods) to 
attract the attention of his audience, who, nothing loth, subside 
into silence, and so remain for hours together, with perhaps an 
occasional ejaculation of wonder, listening with mouths and ears 
agape to the savage stories and legends of the ancient narrator, 
who never seems at a loss for matter, and it is only when tired 
nature asserts herself that these savage seances come to a termi- 
nation. 
These legends and histories, in fact all their knowledge, is thus 
kept alive, and so handed down from one generation ; 
therefore whatever cannot be woven into an entertaining nar- 
accounts for their paucity of historical or any other kind of lore, 
and the entire absence, as well, of anything like reliable testimony 
the day, to whom events of the past, however interesting, are as 
though they had never been ; in short, figuratively speaking, they 
are a people to whom grandfathers have not been vouchsafed. 
PROPORTION OF SEXES. 
Z In all the tribes the males prep 1] t very C ide bly This 
is not because of the paucity of female children born, as, at birth, 
the sexes are about equal. The mortality amongst the females 
after the age of puberty is attained, however, is far greater than 
It is amongst the males, and for this aboriginal feature there are 
abundant reasons, amongst which their early maternity is not one 
of the least. I have seen girls frequently, of not more than eleven 
or twelve years old, becoming mothers ; and child-bearing at these 
tender years entails future infirmities, which materially assist in 
tarrying them off ere they have well reached maturity. Then, 
