ilGINES. 449 



white person. I know as far north as Rockhampton forty years 

 ago men and women were perfectly naked without any covering 

 wliatever. Tliis is peculiar, ]>ecause two years before that I went 

 through the South Seas and visited the New Hebrides, the Solo- 

 mon Group, and New Guinea, and we saw no naked women — all 

 had some clothing ; but the men were naked. But in this country 

 they had no clothing whatever—they were perfectly naked. 

 Therefore, wherever they are represented by a covering that proves 

 they must have got the idea from some white person. There is 

 another thing T may mention. T do not ever remember an 

 aboriginal in this country ))uilding a house for himself. Where 

 houses have been found on the northern coast the natives must 

 have come in contact with white persons. But so far as I have 

 won able to learn the true aboriginal has no permanent dwelling. 

 Tnivellers ha\<j found no dwelling— merely a gunyali — because 

 they were a nomadic race. As to their corroborees, I lielieve they 



thnt is the information I got in ISoS. In the I'raser Islands 

 then; W('i-(> some coiToborees and some of a lewd character, and T 

 was informed by some of the early settlers that the natives had 



-^Ir. .). F. M vw -In reference to those corroborees, at a certain 



