i 79 6.°] 



OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



named Ba-rang-a-roo, lived with him at the time he was feized and 

 taken a captive to the fettlement ; and before her death he had brought 

 off from Botany Bay, by the violence before defcribed, Go-roo-bar- 

 roo-bool-lo; and fhe continued with him until his departure for 

 England. It was underftood that all the natives on the banks of the 

 Hawkefbury had two wives ; and indeed, on the whole, more inftances 

 were known of plurality of wives than of monogamy. In no one 

 inftance had they been obferved to have children by both women ; and 

 in general, as might be expected, the two females were always jealous 

 of, and quarrelling with each other ; though it was underftood, that 

 the firfh wife claimed apriority of attachment, and an exclufive right to 

 the conjugal embrace ; while the fecond or latter choice was compelled 

 to be the drudge and (lave of both. 



Chaftity was a virtue in which, certainly, neither fex prided them- 

 felves ; yet the females, having difcovered that the w T hite people thought 

 it fhameful to be feen naked, became, at leaft many of them, extremely 

 delicate and referved in this refpe£t when before them ; but when in 

 the prefence of only their own people, they were perfectly indif- 

 ferent about their appearance. 



Customs and Manners. 



During the time of parturition thefe people fuffer none but females 

 to be prefent. War-re-weer, Ben-nil-long's fitter, being taken in la- 

 bour while in the town, an opportunity offered of obferving them in 

 that critical juncture ; of which fome of the women, who were fa- 

 vourites with the girl, were defired to avail themfelves; and from 

 them were obtained the following particulars : 



During her labour one female was employed in pouring cold water 

 from to time on the abdomen, while another, tying one end of a 

 fmall line round War-re-weer's neck, with the other end rubbed her 

 own lips until they bled. She derived no actual afliftance from thofe 

 about her, the child coming into the world by the fole effort of na- 

 ture; neither did any one receive it from her; but one of the white 



3 A 2 women 



