CHAT. xx:£r/.J 



AMT AND BARBARlSyt 



50 n 



m 



people of Darey are great carvers and paititm. The 

 outsides of the houses, wherevb* there is a plauk. are 

 eovered with rude yet chai-acterktic figures. The lii'gh- 

 peaked prows of tlieir boats are orna- 

 raeuted with liiasaes of open lilagi-ee 

 work, cut out of solid blocks of wood, 

 and often of very tasteful design. A$ a 

 figure-head, or pimiacle, there iiS ofLeu a 

 huiiiau figure, with a head of cas;iOwary 

 feathers to imitate the I'apuan " ruop." 

 The tloats of tiieir iishiug-liiies, the 

 wooden beatera u^ed in teinperiiig the 

 clay for their pottery, their tobacco- 

 boxes, and otlier household articles, are 

 covered with carving of tasteful and 

 often elegant design. Lid we not already 

 know that such taate and skill are com- 

 patible with utter biu'barism, we couhl 

 hiirdly beUeve that the same people are, 

 in other mattei-s, eniii-ely wanting iu all 

 sense of order, comfort, or decency. Yet 

 such is the case. Xhey Hve in the most 

 miserable, crazy, and lilthy hovels, wliich 

 are utterly destitute of anything that can 

 be called furniture ; not a stool, or bench, 

 or board is seen in them, no brush seems 

 to be known, and the clothes they wear 

 are often filthy bark, or rags, or sacking. 

 Along the piuhs where they daily pass 

 to and froju their provision grounds, not 

 an overhanging bough or straggling briar 

 everseeujs to he cut, so that you have to 

 brush through a rank vegetiitiou, creep 

 under fallen trees and spiny creepers, and 

 wade through pools of mud and mire, 

 which cannot dry up because the sun is 

 not allowed to penetrate. Thi;ir food is 

 almost wholly roots and vegetables, with 

 lish or game only as an occsisional luxury, 

 and they are consequently very subject to various skin 

 diseases, the children especially being often niisei'able- 



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