NATIVE TRIBES OF PORT DARWIN. 
645 
and others in lull regalia approached, and the lad was catechised. 
The answers being satisfactory, he was borne away to a spot in the 
bush which had been cleared, and where eight men lay on the ground, 
their faces in their folded arms, head and feet alternating, the backs 
forming a platform. Upon the buttocks the boy was laid ; black- 
fellows sat on the shoulders of their prostrate companions and held 
him, while Emu, using a piece of a glass bottle, removed the foreskin. 
The mother of the boy, who sat, accompanied by two or three other 
dames, a little removed at the lad’s feet, received the portion of skin 
excised in the canoe-shaped water-vessel hollowed from a log, and, after 
washing, swallowed it. A piece of grass was placed round the penis, the 
skin drawn over it and bound with another bit of grass, and hot ashes 
applied. To aid him to preserve silence the boy had had in his mouth 
a tassel containing a pebble on which to set his teeth. 
General Characteristics . — These aboriginals, in common with the 
other tribes north of the MacDonnell Range, are lighter in colour, 
and are destitute of the hairiness of the natives south of the range ; 
there is little beard, moustache, or whisker, and the chest and limbs 
are smooth. The eyes, moreover, do not appear to me to be so deeply 
set, nor the racial characteristics generally so marked. The hair is 
fine, and in some instances very curly. When among strangers or 
engaged in some occupation, making a march or lying in indolence, the 
countenance is plain and emotionless, impassive almost to sullermess ; 
hut when the face lifts in responsive interest and friendliness it 
becomes pleasing and frequently very attractive; kindliness and 
affection lighten the heavy features, and bright honest eyes kindle and 
dance with mirth and joyousness. The sadden lighting up of my boy’s 
face, as his heart responded through his eyes at some kindly remark, 
changed his coarse, heavy, ugly features — and the Australoid charac- 
teristics were in him most pronounced — to something very near beauty. 
The first time I caught this glance it was indeed a revelation to me. 
Cicatrices . — The bodies of both men and women are adorned 
with these marks raised on the skin, but the Larraki‘a say that no 
meaning is attachable to them now, and that they are merely for orna- 
ment. Formerly one on the side of the buttock is said to have 
represented a husband lost, and on the shoulder a brother, &c.; 
further inquiry is therefore desirable. I have observed three lines 
across the body below the lower ribs, a row of short perpendicular 
cuts across the chest, and three short cuts on either shoulder 
downwards. 
Weapons, Articles , <$fc . — The weapons in use are spears of seven 
to ten feet in length, variously barbed for hunting and combat, and 
of two or three prongs barbed for spearing fish, as well as stone- 
headed for battle. There is also a light reed spear with 15 to 
25 inches of stick inserted, simply pointed and hardened in 
the fire, in all about four or five feet in length. The worn m eras are 
of two kinds : one a piece of flat wood, 3 feet 1 inch to 3 feet 4 inches 
in length, and If -inch in breadth at the widest part ; the other round, 
about l -inch in thickness and tapering somewhat, and a few inches 
longer than the flat wommera. The latter is only used for the light 
reed spears. The natives towards Port Essington occasionally carry 
2s 
