in the horny part of the toe, where pinching would not be of any avail. On reaching the camp, however, he was attended to at once; but the poison had been too long in the system to allow of a perfect cure; certainly his life was saved, but he could not move out of the camp without assistance for two years afterwards, and during these years of enforced confinement he was continually breaking out in boils and blotches, which in every instance left very uncurable ulcers and sores behind. All the sole of the bitten foot suppurated and came away piecemeal, leaving the bones and tendons of the foot quite bare. He never regained his wonted strength, or even a semblance of it; although he got to be able to walk about a little, it was quite an effort to do so. He wasted

and dwindled quietly away, free from pain, for a few years more, when he died. At the time of his death, he was the merest skeleton I ever saw, and so light he could easily have been raised from the ground by one hand.

In their obstetrical practice they are very primitive indeed; but then, to be sure, scientific assistance is rarely required by them during the periods of parturition, their unconventional manner of living, together with the simplicity of dress, makes Dame Nature's assistance ample on nearly all those occasions. It does occur, occasionally, that a woman about to become a mother will be accompanied by one of her own sex into the part of the bush selected for the interesting event; but this is merely for company's sake, and not with the view of rendering assistance, as in all cases of the kind the mothers have their wits so well about them they even fasten the umbilical cord themselves. As soon as the dark mite of aboriginal humanity is brought forth, the mother picks it up and carries it straight to the nearest available water, where she washes it clean, and that, too, without taking the chill off the water. When this essential has been satisfactorily concluded, she rolls it up in her cloak, and walks off to the camp with the greatest composure; when she arrives there, neither her appearance, nor that of her new production, elicits the least wonder or surprise-the putative father even sits calmly by, and pays no particular heed. It frequently happens that a woman will be taken with the pains of labour during a trail from one place of encampment to another. When this occurs, she merely drops out of the line of march, and seeks the friendly shelter of some convenient bush, after which she picks up the trail again, and walks on to the new place of encampment, carrying her latest progeny with her as though the penalty incurred by Eve had not descended to her aboriginal sisterhood.

* The skin on the under part, as well as a good distance up the sides of the feet and toes of the aborigines, is as hard as a horse's hoof. This merely applies, as in fact, the whole of this paper does, to the unsophisticated aborigines.

During my long experience of the aborigines, I have only known of one parturition case terminating fatally, and, in my opinion, the woman was physically incapacitated for the ordeal of maternity-although it is such a simple matter from an aboriginal point of view-she being the veriest pigmy in the shape of a woman that I ever saw; besides, she gave birth to twins on the occasion, which may have had something to do with her death. Most singular to say, as far as I have been able to learn, this was the first and only instance of twins being born known to these aborigines, and these were by a white father.

SMALL-POX.

All the very old men in these tribes show distinct small-pox traces. In speaking of this scourge they say that it came with the waters, that is to say, it followed down the rivers in the early flood season, laying its death clutch on every tribe in its progress, until the whole country became perfectly decimated. During the earlier stages of its ravages the natives gave proper sepulture to its victims; but at last the death rate became so heavy, and, naturally, the panic so great, burying the bodies was no longer attempted-the survivors merely moved their camps daily, leaving the sick behind to die, unattended, and the dead to fester in the sun, or as food for wild dogs and carrion birds, until in a short time the whole atmosphere became tainted with the fetid odours arising from the decomposing bodies. The poor

creatures began to think that not one would escape death, consequently they sank to so great a depth of despondency, through this foul destroyer, as to make them indifferent whether they lived or died.

When the bright torrid summer displaced the moister spring, the disease, after devastating these tribes, gradually died out, leaving but a sorry remnant of the aborigines behind, to mourn the depopulation of the land, and many, many moons waxed and waned before the fell destroyer's foul presence was even partially forgotten. To this day the old men who bear such patent traces of the loathed distemper speak shudderingly and with so much genuine horror as it is impossible for any other evil to elicit from their inherent stolidity.

This small-pox infliction seems to be the only occasion upon which great numbers died from one cause; it is not wonderful therefore if the survivors do look back to the time of the scourge with feelings of profound dread. The aborigines attributed this pestilence to the malign machinations of tribes away on the upper rivers, with whom they were not on terms of amity; that however is only a matter of course, since they ascribe all the ills with which nature smites them to the same source.

FOOD.

As a rule the food of these aborigines consists of fish principally, of which, for eight months in the year they have a superabundance; so much so indeed is their supply during those months they cannot nearly consume it all, consequently quite a moiety is absolutely wasted. To supplement the fish they have kangaroo, emu, opossum, and wallaby; and besides these, aquatic wild-fowl of countless variety are found in the greatest profusion on the lakes and lagoons; these latter they capture abundantly, aided by nets manufactured for that purpose only; and during the breeding season of these birds they get eggs innumerable, the canoes arriving at the camps in the evenings then are literally laden down to the water's edge with no other cargo but eggs; they are heaped up at both ends until there is hardly room for the native to stand and paddle. It is of but small moment to them whether the eggs have birds in them or not, as they are consumed with a relish all the same. A species of flag having a farinaceous root, called by the aborigines kumpung, grows very plentifully by the margins of all the lakes and lagoons; it makes, even to a European, a very palatable and nutritious food; it can be procured in abundance, but as it requires considerable labour to dig it, much less is procured than its manifold merits would justify. The flower-stem of this flag when it rises through the water in spring is also eaten in its raw green state; it is very insipid to European palates, and I fancy it contains but a very small modicum of nutritive matter; however the natives are extremely partial to it, they therefore consume it in great quantities. In this green stage the aborigines term it jontie. The common small-flowered yellow water lily which so plentifully fringes most of the colonial lakes and lagoons, is another source from whence they derive a desirable addition to their diet. The roots of this plant are formed of many tubers, averaging about an inch in length, by a diameter of about half an inch; the roots of one plant will frequently yield as many tubers as a half-pint measure will contain. They are baked before being eaten, and are of a sweet mawkish taste, and not unlike Jerusalem artichokes in their consistency. These tubers are called laboor by the aborigines.

The common sow thistle, dandelion, yam, and a trefoil which grows on country subject at times to inundations during their respective seasons are largely consumed. To see the lyoors (women) approaching the camp in the evenings with each a great bundle of these forage plants on her head, a stranger to their customs would imagine that they were providing the nightly fodder for a dairy of cows; they eat all these herbs in their raw state by way of salad.

Besides the foregoing they eat the larvæ of several kinds of ants, some of which are tree-inhabiting, whilst others are mound-raising ground insects. Grubs also of all kinds and sizes are greatly appreciated by them, more especially the large one common to the

gum-trees all over the Colony. The natives are very expert in discovering the shrubs and trees in which grubs are to be found, in fact they seldom err; yet to a casual observer, or even one with some acuteness, there is not the slightest perceptible difference in the appearance of a tree or shrub containing numerous grubs and those which do not contain any, but aboriginal observation is wonderfully keen in all matters pertaining to nature; even objects seemingly the most trivial fail to elude their ever ready perception. The ant larvæ is consumed raw, whilst the grubs are eaten either raw or roasted.

During the cold bleak weather which occurs in winter they are not the least bit choice as to their food; anything having life, no matter how repulsive to European notions it may be, is most acceptable at those times; frogs are deemed good; the then hybernating carpet or true snake most toothsome, and even the abominable fetid wild dog is esteemed a luxury of the very highest order.

Blackfellows' ovens or cooking-places have been a fertile source of argument for many years, some holding that they are not cooking-places at all, but tumuli or burrows left by some race long since passed away and quite forgotten. Still, so far as the general public are aware, none of the writers or discussers of the point have had sufficient curiosity to dig into the mounds, and so set the vexed question at rest once and for all.

Blackfellows' ovens are not by any means misnomers, as to all intents and purposes they are essentially genuine cooking-places, or cooking-places and kitchen middens combined, and the following is the manner of their formation :-A family, or perhaps several families, as the case may be, select a site for their camp, where abundance of game and other sources of food obtain and are procurable with the least expenditure of time and labour. Towards the middle of the afternoon the hunters drop into camp, with the result of the day's industry, consisting in all probability of all sorts and sizes; for my present purpose however I shall assume the game to consist of opossums only.

When the hunters have seated themselves comfortably, they set to work at once skinning the opossums, whilst several of the lyoors (women) go off with their yam-sticks; when they reach the spot selected for the purpose, they begin with a will to excavate a hole, about 3 feet in diameter and nearly 2 feet deep; during the digging of the hole any pieces of clay which they chip out, in size similar to ordinary road metal, are placed carefully on one side with the view to their future use.

When the hole has been dug sufficiently deep, it is swept or brushed out with some boughs or a bunch of grass; it is then filled to the top or a little above it with firewood, which the lyoors had previously collected and prepared for that purpose. On the top of the firewood the selected pieces of clay are carefully placed, the

wood is then ignited, and by the time it is all burned the clay nodules have become baked until they are exactly similar to irregular sections of well burnt brick; of course they are red hot. When this result has been properly achieved, the hot clay is removed from the hole; for this purpose they use two pieces of stick about 8 inches long, holding them both in one hand and working them deftly, even as a cookmaid uses a pair of tongs. The aborigines have not any distinctive name for these pieces of stick, merely calling them kulkie (wood).

The deft manipulation of these tongs is an accomplishment enjoyed by old and young alike; their dexterity therein seems quite an aboriginal gift, as few white men ever attain to any degree of proficiency in their use.

After the hot clay is removed from the hole the ashes are carefully swept out, and a thinnish layer of slightly moistened grass is placed over the bottom and round the sides, upon which the prepared opossums are nicely packed and covered over with more damp grass; the hot clay nodules are then spread evenly over the top of the grass, and over these the finer earth which originally came out of the excavation is spread.

Should this final covering be too thin to keep in the steam, it is supplemented by earth dug in immediate proximity (this supplemented soil fully accounts for the depressions always found about the bases of these ovens); ashes are never employed for the outside covering, nor is sand, because being so fine they would be apt to percolate through the interstices of both grass and clay nodules, thereby adding an amount of grit, which would not improve either the flavour or appearance of the food. Before the heat in the clay nodules and the hole itself has become exhausted the opossums are beautifully cooked, as perfectly so indeed as though the operation had been performed in the most perfect kitchen range extant.

When the cooking has been completed, the covering is scraped off, and this debris, consisting of calcined clay, ashes, and burnt earth, becomes the nucleus of a blackfellow's oven, such as are to be seen at the present day. This process being repeated at short intervals, over a series of years, perhaps indeed for centuries, results in the mounds which are in reality blacks' ovens.

As long as the camp remains in the same position the original hole is used for baking; and when it is understood that at least a barrowful of fresh clay is required every time the oven is heated, to replace the unavoidable waste by crumbling, which is by no means inconsiderable, in consequence of the clay being used in an unwrought state, it will readily be seen how these mounds gradually but surely increase; bones too of the animals they use as food, charcoal, &c., tend materially to hasten this growth.