106 CUSTOMS OF THE NATIVES. 
opossum does not inhabit the interior. Those that were 
noticed, were made of the red kangaroo skin. In appear- 
ance, these men are stouter in the bust than at the lower 
extremities; they have broad noses, sunken eyes, overhano-- 
ing eyebrows, and thick lips. The men are much better 
looking than the women. Both go perfectly naked, if I 
except the former, who wear nets over the loins and across 
the forehead, and bones through the cartilages of the 
nose. Their chief food is fish, of which they have great 
supplies in the river ; still they have their seasons for hunt- 
ing their emus and kangaroos. The nets they use for this 
purpose, as well as for fishing, are of great length, and are 
made upon large frames. These people do not appear to 
have warlike habits, nor do they take any pride in their 
arms, which differ little from those used by the inland 
tribes, and are assimilated to them as far as the materials 
will allow. One powerful man, however, had a regular 
trident, for which Mr. Hume offered many things without 
success. He plainly intimated to us that he had a use for 
it, but whether against an enemy or to secure prey, we 
could not understand. I was most anxious to have ascer- 
tained if any religious ceremonies obtained among them, 
but the difficulty of making them comprehend our meaning 
was insurmountable ; and to the same cause may be attri- 
buted the circumstance of my being unable to collect any 
satisfactory vocabulary of their language. They evinced a 
strange perversity, or obstinacy rather, in repeating words, 
although it was evident that they knew they were meant as ■ 
