252 
Characteristics of the 
instruments of procuring food, are too well known to 
stand in need of description. Baskets, of a circular 
shape, were fabricated by the women out of long grass 
or rushes. Strength and compactness, united with 
capacity, were the only ends which were sought to be 
reached in their texture. These were fastened around 
their persons in the act of diving, and were used as the 
receptacles of the shell-fish, which was thus obtained. 
It was customary, also, for the women to form rows of 
the more lustrous shells, which are abundantly scattered 
over the sea-coast, by means of attenuated pieces of skin, 
and to wear them as decorations around their necks. A 
cluster of such glistering shells was termed merrina . A 
similar love of ornament was displayed in the flowers 
and feathers with which the heads of both sexes were 
generally found to be attired. 
Their social history was rather characterised by the 
absence of what is venerable and lovely, than by the 
prevalence of what is dark and revolting. Harmony 
and good humour seem generally to have reigned among 
the members of the same tribe. The force of the 
parental instinct was usually strong enough to render the 
maintenance of their offspring a care and a delight. 
Instances, however, have occurred in which the child lias 
been wantonly sacrificed to the dread of famine. When 
it is borne in mind that polygamy prevailed among them, 
the abject condition of the female sex may be easily 
conceived. 
No pretensions to any kind of witchcraft seem to have 
ever sprung up among them. The character of the tribe 
was stamped, with very slight varieties, on all the in¬ 
dividuals of whom it was composed. In cases of sick¬ 
ness or violent pain, relief was generally sought by 
bleeding the sufferer. It was effected by means of flints 
or crystals, the extremities of which they contrived to 
