i79 6 -] OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 373; 



fhould never be known that they had made him fuch a prefent, as the 

 Cam-mer-ray tribe, to whom they were to be given, would not fail to 

 punifh them for it ; and they added that they mould tell them the 

 teeth were loft. 



One of the boys who had undergone the operation had formerly 

 lived with the principal furgeon of the fettlement till that gentleman's 

 departure for England. A female relation of this boy brought his 

 tooth to the Author, with a requeft that he would fend it to Mr. 

 White ; thus with gratitude remembering, after the lapfe of fome 

 years, the attention which that gentleman had fhewn to her relative. 

 Thefe women urged the Author now to quit the place, as they did 

 not know what might enfue. He had, indeed, obferved the natives 

 arming themfelves ; much confufion and hurry was vifible among them, 

 and the favage appeared to be predominating ; as he retired, the fignal 

 was given, which animated the boys to the firft exercife of the fpirit 

 which the bufinefs of the day had infufed into them ; and they rufhed 

 into the town in the manner before defcribed, every where as they 

 parTed along fetting the grafs on fire. 



Thofe medical gentlemen to whom the teeth were fhewn, declared 

 that they could not have been better extracted, had the proper inftru- 

 ment been ufed by the hand of a dentift, inftead of a (lone and piece of 

 wood in that of a favage. 



On a view of all thefe circumftances, we mould not confider this 

 ceremony in any other light than as a tribute, were we not obliged to 

 hefitate, by obferving that all the people of Cam-mer-ray, which 

 were thofe who exa&ed the tooth, were themfelves proofs that they 

 had fubmitted to the operation, every one of them having loft the 

 front tooth. Ben-nil-long, in their early acquaintance with him and 

 his language, told his friends, as they then thought, that a man of the 

 name of Cam-mer-ra-gal wore all the teeth about his neck. But it 

 was afterwards found that this term was only the diftinguifhing title 

 of the tribe which performed the ceremonies incident to the opera- 

 tion. Ben-nil-long at other times told them, that his own tooth was 



bour« 



