with all kinds of designs.  The down and feathers are stuck on their bodies with blood freshly taken from their penis; they are also nicely painted with various colors; tufts of boughs are tied on their ankles to make a noise while dancing.  Promiscuous sexual intercourse is carried on secretly; many quarrels occur at this time.” (Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vol. xxiv, November, 1894, p. 174.)

In Australian dances, sometimes men and women dance together, sometimes the men dance alone, sometimes the women.  In one dance described by Eyre:  “Women are the chief performers; their bodies are painted with white streaks, and their hair adorned with cockatoo feathers.  They carry large sticks in their hands, and place themselves in a row in front, while the men with their spears stand in a row behind them.  They then all commence their movements, but without intermingling, the males and females dancing by themselves.  The women have occasionally another mode of dancing, by joining the hands together over the head, closing the feet, and bringing the knees into contact.  The legs are then thrown outward from the knee, while the feet and hands are kept in their original position, and, being drawn quickly in again, a sharp sound is produced by the collision.  This is also practised alone by young girls or by several together for their own amusement.  It is adopted also when a single woman is placed in front of a row of male dancers to excite their passions.” (E.J.  Eyre, Journals of Expeditions into Central Australia, vol. ii, p. 235.)

A charming Australian folk-tale concerning two sisters with wings, who disliked men, and their wooing by a man, clearly indicates, even among the Australians (whose love-making is commonly supposed to be somewhat brutal in character), the consciousness that it is by his beauty, charm, and skill in courtship that a man wins a woman.  Unahanach, the lover, stole unperceived to the river where the girls were bathing and at last showed himself carelessly sitting on a high tree.  The girls were startled, but thought it would be safe to amuse themselves by looking at the intruder.  “Young and with the most active figure, yet of a strength that defied the strongest emu, and even enabled him to resist an ‘old man’ kangaroo, he had no equal in the chase, and conscious power gave a dignity to his expression that at one glance calmed the fears of the two girls.  His large brilliant eyes, shaded by a deep fringe of soft black eyelashes, gazed down upon them admiringly, and his rich black hair hung around his well-formed face, smooth and shining from the emu-oil with which it was abundantly covered.”  At last he persuaded them to talk and by and by induced them to call him husband.  Then they went off with him, with no thought of flight in their hearts.  ("Australian Folklore Stories,” collected by W. Dunlop, Journal of the Anthropological Institute, new series, vol. i, 1898, p. 33.)