The woman (yago) is evidently the old wife or fag, the relict of some deceased relative. The younger wife is probably more lazy, and will follow by-and-bye.
This old woman carries the indispensable wanna, or yam-stick, the pointed end being rounded on one side and flat on the other, and charred to make it hard. With this she hopes to supply the (koto) bag at her back with the roots of orchids and other tubers. She will also put into it frogs (guyé), opossums (gumal), killed by her husband, and anything else she may desire to carry. Her frightfully attenuated limbs remind one of the hardships she has endured, but it is not to be supposed that they illustrate the limbs of the women generally, some of whom have very good arms and legs. The little boy will of course make his mother carry him all day.
Stature is doubtless much influenced by local circumstances. The average height in Western Australia is, I think, equal to, but in Victoria rather below the European standard. In the former colony, some tall men and women used to be seen about Fremantle, the Murray estuary, and King George's Sound. Indeed the tribes frequenting those places included some very fine specimens of the human figure; a sculptor might select some of either sex as models of human beauty. I remember when on an expedition, in 1851, to the north-east of the Toolbrunup (or Stirling) Range, my party was one day joined by a huge native and his little wife. This brawny savage man was about six feet two or three inches in height, and broad in proportion, with enormous limbs, and was covered all over with hair. His wife, who was carrying a child at her back, did not appear to be more than thirteen or fourteen years old. Then, among the tall women, the old residents of Fremantle will remember one remarkably tall fine old woman, who used occasionally to visit the town from Pinjarra. The limbs of some of these women were as well developed as in the European type, the calves of the legs being as large. This is not, however, generally the case in most parts of Australia. The lower extremities are often very attenuated in those tribes where food is scarce and not easily obtained; yet, with this apparent defect, there is much greater pliability of muscle than in other races.
Dwarfs or cripples are never seen among the natives.
The skin is as soft as the finest velvet. This is probably caused to some extent by the use of wilghee—an unguent composed of red-ochre and grease—with which they anoint themselves. A supply of wilghee is generally carried by the women in their bags for the use of the party when they encamp in the evening. They then rub it over their faces and often over the whole body as they sit round their fires. Once, when travelling with a native guide, he saw that I was much inconvenienced by the great heat and the clouds of mosquitos and flies, and said—"What for white fellow all same fool? use um soap too much, instead of wilghee."
In the warmer parts of Asia travellers carry oil with them, not only for food, but also to anoint their limbs in the evening, which have been scorched during the day by the sun and blistered by the winds. The ancient Hebrews sometimes anointed the whole body, though generally only the head and feet; and Niebuhr states that in Yemen the anointing of the body is believed to strengthen and
