INLAND TKIBE8. 
227 
that presented themgekes to their view, they carefully 
abstained from dispk}'iQg any approach to the monkey- 
like viyactty which usually characterises Australian abo- 
rigines when they first meet with strangers. Nor were 
they endeavoming to enact a particular part, as we were 
inclined to suppose, for we subsequently learned that thia 
style of manner is natural to them, or, at all events, such 
as they generally adopt, 
" Our visitors were evidently adorned for the occasion. 
Each man, with the exception of the chief, was painted 
from head to foot with a red substance which is found in 
the hills, supposed to be meteoric iron.* Their only 
clothiug, if such it may be called, consisted in a large 
tassel made from the fur of the opossum or kangaroo, 
which was suspended before them from a waist-belt 
composed of the same materials, and which was certainly 
• This substance ia also in general use for adomiag the person, 
among the tribes of tic northern ond eastern coast of Auatralia. 
It is generallj met with m lumps varying in weight from a few 
orunees to one or two pounds, whicli appear to have been hroken 
off from larger masse^. Its appearance is that of a compact metaUic 
cjre, of the colour and consistence of red lead. Colonel Jackson, an 
esperieuccd mctaUurgist, who waa Sccretaxy of the Geographical 
Societj at the time, was of opinion that tko specimen submitted to 
him resembled cinnabar, tuid he has stated this opinion in a short 
editorial note in the orlgbal issue of this imper* It is said by the 
natives to ahomid in the nmge which tcnulnates near Cape Wessel, 
the north-western horn of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Cimmbar is also 
stated by Lieutenant ColehTOoke to he hi use as a colouring matter 
for the body, among the natives of the Andaman Groaj). Sec 
anie^ chap. 
