410 
On the Aborigines 
than strength is called into action. Their colour is bluish black, 
less black than that of African negroes, but slightly more so than 
Lascars. Their hair is black and woolly, but apparently not so 
much so as that of negroes. The hair of the female appears 
more woolly than that of the male; this is probably owing to the 
female keeping her hair cut extremely close, leaving a narrow 
circle all round, as if a basin had been put over the head, and the 
hair inside of it cut away. The men allow their hair to grow very 
long, matting each lock separately with grease and ochre. The 
eyes are dark, wild, and strongly expressive of the passions; 
forehead high, narrow, running to a peak; nose flat, and nostrils 
wide; the jaw bones are large, strong, and prominent, and shew 
a great width in front; the mouth is very wide, and the teeth 
large, strong, and even; the lips are not full, like those of 
negroes, at least not generally so. The men grease their bodies, 
and streak them with red ochre, and a variety of plumbago ; this 
is partly done for ornament, but they say that it in a great mea¬ 
sure protects them from the inclemency of the weather: uncon¬ 
nected with this besmearing, a very peculiar odour proceeds from 
their bodies. Their skulls must be very thick, judging from the 
blows which they receive on them with impunity. 
Their language is very soft and liquid, ending, I think with¬ 
out exception, in vowels; as loro loubra (a white woman), loro 
whanga (a white mountain), ringarooma, boobyalla, &c. The 
dialects are numerous, and the language in different parts of the 
island appears to be wholly different: to the westward they call 
water “ mocha,” and “ mogana,” to the eastward “ lina.” 
The aborigines from the westward, and those from the eastward, 
did not at first understand each other, when brought to Flinders' 
Island (the present establishment of the blacks), but they after¬ 
wards, in common with the whites, used a kind of lingua franca. 
It is apparent, however, that there was a considerable analogy 
between their languages, as they joined in the same corroberies, 
singing the same songs; these were principally those of the 
easterns, and it is possible that the westerns did not understand 
the purport of the words. The aborigines shew great facility in 
attaining the pronunciation even of English words, dissimilar as 
