COAST TRIBES. 
S15 
racter, for then Australiaias of perhaps a dozen different 
tribes might be seen mixed up with natives of Celebes 
and Sumbawa, Badjus of the coast of Borneo, Timorianaj 
and Javanese, mth an occasional spiinkling of New 
Guinea uegroes ; and very singular groups they formed, 
busied, as they generally were, amid fires and smoke, 
curing and packing the trepang, or sea- slug, which they 
had collected from the shoals of the harbour, I propose 
here giving a general sketch of the tribes inhabiting the 
Australian coast, from the Coburg Pcuinsula towards the 
east, confining myself chiefly to points more immediately 
connected with geographical science — namely, the distri- 
bution of the various tribes, the points upon which they 
may happen to differ from other Australian tribes with 
which we are already acquainted, and the social pecu- 
liarities that may afford traces of a couoeetion with other 
races. 
In the first place I should state, that certain general 
characteristics are observablefanioog all the tribes of this 
part of the continent vnth which we became acquainted. 
Their skins ate invariably embossed with raised cicatrices. 
The septum of the nose is generally pierced, that is to 
say among the men, for the custom does not appear 
to extend to the other sex. Clothing is disregarded, 
except by way of ornament, and in lieu of this they dis- 
play a great tendency to adorn their persons with streaks 
of white, red, or yellow pigment. These customs, indeed, 
appear to pei-vade not only all the Australian tribes, but 
also the negro communities of New Guinea, and of those 
islands of the Indian Archipelago in which remnants of 
this race still exist. But these northern Austrahans, at 
