228 
AMUSEMENTS. 
the dexterities of warfare, in which they are soon to 
be more seriously engaged.* 
An amusement of the adults, is a large bunch of emu 
feathers tied together, (fig. 1. PL 1.) which is held out 
and shaken as if in defiance, by some individual, whilst 
the others advance to try to take it out of his hands. 
This occasions an amusing struggle before the prize 
is gained, in which it is not uncommon to see from 
ten to twenty strong and lusty men rolling in a heap 
together. This is a sort of athletic exercise amongst 
them, for the purpose of testing each other’s strength. 
On such an occasion they are all unarmed and naked. 
At nights, dances or plays are performed by the 
different tribes in turn, the figures and scenes of 
which are extensively varied, but all are accom- 
panied by songs, and a rude kind of music produced 
by beating two sticks together, or by the action of 
the hand upon a cloak of skins rolled tightly to- 
gether, so as to imitate the sound of a drum. In 
some of the dances only are the women allowed to 
take a part ; but they have dances of their own, in 
which the men do not join. At all times they are 
the chief musicians, vocal and instrumental. Some- 
times, however, they have an old man to lead the 
band and pitch the tunes ; and at others they are 
assisted by the old and young men indiscriminately. 
The natives have not any war-dance, properly so 
called, though sometimes they are decorated in all 
* For an account of a similar practise among the American 
Indians, vide Catlin, vol. 1. p. 131. 
