112 
A VOYAGE TO 
1777. their climate, though furnifhed with the materials. The 
« . fmall hick, rudely pointed, which one of them carried in 
his hand, was the only thing we faw that required any me¬ 
chanical exertion, if we except the fixing on the feet of 
fome of them pieces of kangooroo fkin, tied with thongs; 
though it could not be learnt whether thefe were in ufe as 
ihoes, or only to defend fome fore ; It muffc be owned, how¬ 
ever, they are matters of fome contrivance in the manner 
of cutting their arms and bodies in lines of different lengths 
and directions, which are raifed confiderably above the fur- 
face of the fkin, fo that it is difficult to guefs the method 
they ufe in executing this embroidery of their perfons. 
Their not exprefling that furprize which one might have 
expectted from their feeing men fo much unlike themfelves, 
and things, to which, we were well allured, they had been 
hitherto utter ftrangers; their indifference for our prefents ; 
and their general inattention ; were fufhcient proofs of their 
not poffefling any acutenefs of underftanding. 
Their colour is a dull black, and not quite fo deep as 
that of the African Negroes. It fliould feem alfo, that they 
fometimes heightened their black colour, by fmutting their 
bodies ; as a mark was left behind on any clean fubftance, 
fuch as white paper, when they handled it. Their hair, 
however, is perfectly woolly, and it is clotted or divided 
into fmall parcels, like that of the Hottentots, with the ufe 
of fome fort of greafe, mixed with a red paint or ochre, 
which they fmear in great abundance over their heads. 
This practice, as fome might imagine, has not the effedt of 
changing their hair into the frizzling texture we obferved ; 
for, on examining the head of a boy, which appeared never 
to have been fmeared, I found the hair to be of the lame 
kind. 
