Page:Aboriginesofvictoria02.djvu/255

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
NOTES AND ANECDOTES.
237

Mr. Knight, of Western Australia, in his little book on that colony, says—"The limbs of a well-formed Australian man exhibit a nice symmetry and a fine muscular development. His agility and flexibility of body when running or otherwise actively engaged are advantageously displayed; his posture when throwiug a spear is extremely graceful; and his gait and bearing when walking are even dignified."

The annexed engravings (Figs. 248 and 249) of a King George's Sound native, with his old wife and child, are from drawings by the late Deputy Assistant Commissary-General Neill.

FIG. 248.

They are very characteristic and true to the life.

The natives appear to have just risen from the camp-fire, being equipped for a day's foraging excursion within their own territory, for the man has but one spear. They wear the usual cloak (boka) made with three or four skins of the female kangaroo, the furry side being next to the body, while the outside of the boka, as well as the faces and bodies of the wearers, are anointed with wilghee. The man is ornamented with a bunch of emu feathers on each arm, and feathers of the black cockatoo on his head, which is bound round with string (nulban) made of opossum (koomal) fir. The barbed spear (kidgi) is fixed in the throwing-board (miro) ready for use.