Page:Narrativeavoyag01wilsgoog.djvu/194

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162
CHARACTER AND MANNERS OF

but also for all in the settlement. The Malays caught fish readily with a hook, but none of our people had any success by that method.

It may not be out of place now to give a few particulars as to the character of the Aborigines of this part of New Holland.


In personal appearance they bear some resemblance to the natives about Port Jackson. They are, however, better made, and possess more intelligent, and perhaps more savage countenances,—they go entirely naked, and their shoulders, breasts, nates, and thighs, are ornamented with cicatrices, resembling the braiding of a hussar's jacket. Their hair is long, generally straight, and powdered with red earth.

Some of them wear a fillet of net work, about two or three inches wide, bound tightly round the waist, and a similar ornament round the head and arms; and sometimes a necklace of net work hanging a considerable length down the back.

Many of them have the front tooth in the upper jaw knocked out in the same manner as the Port Jackson natives mentioned by Captain Collins. They paint their faces, and frequently their entire bodies, with red earth; those who are inclined to be dandies, draw one or two longitudinal lines of white, across the forehead, and three similar on each cheek; and a few who appeared to be exquisites, had another white line drawn from the forehead to the tip of the nose. The nasal