(Footnote.  We refer our readers to Mr. Eyre’s work, where these and other weapons are figured.)

I here saw the only musical instrument I ever remarked among the natives of Australia.  It is a piece of bamboo thinned from the inside, through which they blow with their noses.  It is from two to three feet long, is called ebroo, and produces a kind of droning noise.  It is generally made use of at corrobories or dances, some of which express feats of hunting and war, while others are very indecent, and reminded us of similar exhibitions in the East.  It was generally remarked that the old clothes given to these savages disappeared in a most mysterious manner.  They were understood to be sold to the natives inhabiting the loftier parts of the interior, but of this I entertain very considerable doubt.  Sand, in which the Australian continent abounds, is like everything else proceeding from the hand of the Creator, not without its uses.  On cold nights the natives make up for their total want of covering, by burying themselves in it, and nothing can be more irresistibly comic than to see these black lumps sticking out of the earth, like so many enchanted unfortunates in an eastern romance.  It moreover has other uses, forming a substitute for soap;* and when cooking turtle it is mixed with earth and sprinkled over the meat, as we should pepper.

(Footnote.  Their general habits are cleanly.)

One discovery which was made through the medium of the natives, was that the large tumuli noticed by Captain King and others, and supposed to be raised by the inhabitants, are the works of a bird; some of them are thirty feet long and about five feet high; they are always built near thick bushes in which they can take shelter, at the least alarm.  The edifice is erected with the feet, which are remarkable both for size and strength, and a peculiar power of grasping; they are yellow while the body is brown.  Nothing can be more curious than to see them hopping towards these piles on one foot, the other being filled with materials for building.  Though much smaller in shape, in manner they much resemble moor-fowl.  The use made of the mound is to contain eggs, which are deposited in layers, and are then hatched by the heat generated in part from decomposition.  The instant that the shell bursts, the young bird comes forth strong and large, and runs without the slightest care being taken of it by the parent.  Of the number of eggs laid by each bird, seldom more than two are hatched.  It is singular that these mounds are found away from the earth and shells of which they are composed.  It seems difficult to credit that a bird so small could raise a structure so large.  The largest we ever saw was about eight feet high, on one of the Possession Islands in Endeavour Strait.

The name given to the bird by Mr. Gould is Megapodius tumulus, and it will be unnecessary to enter upon any further details concerning it, as he has described it most interestingly in his work on the birds of Australia.