CONTENTS OF THE WOMEN’S BAG OR WALLET.

Thus equipped the father of the family stalks forth, and at a respectful distance behind him follow the women; a long thick stick, the point of which has been hardened in the fire, is in each of their hands, a child or two fixed in their bags or upon their shoulders, and in the deep recesses of these mysterious bags they carry moreover sundry articles which constitute the wealth of the Australian savage.  These are however worthy of a particular enumeration, as this will make plain the domestic economy of one of these barbarian housewives.

The contents of a native woman’s bag are:  A flat stone to pound roots with; earth to mix with the pounded roots; quartz, for the purpose of making spears and knives; stones for hatchets; prepared cakes of gum, to make and mend weapons and implements; kangaroo sinews to make spears and to sew with; needles made of the shin-bones of kangaroos, with which they sew their cloaks, bags, etc.; opossum hair to be spun into waist belts; shavings of kangaroo skins to polish spears, etc.; the shell of a species of mussel to cut hair, etc., with; native knives; a native hatchet; pipe-clay; red ochre, or burnt clay; yellow ochre, a piece of paperbark to carry water in; waistbands and spare ornaments; pieces of quartz which the native doctors have extracted from their patients, and thus cured them from diseases; these they preserve as carefully as Europeans do relics.  Banksia cones (small ones) or pieces of a dry white species of fungus to kindle fire with rapidly and to convey it from place to place; grease, if they can procure it from a whale, or from any other source; the spare weapons of their husbands, or the pieces of wood from which these are to be manufactured; the roots, etc., which they have collected during the day.  Skins not yet prepared for cloaks are generally carried between the bag and the back, so as to form a sort of cushion for the bag to rest on.

In general each woman carries a lighted fire-stick, or brand, under her cloak and in her hand.

DIFFERENT METHODS OF CATCHING KANGAROOS.

Imagining several parties of this kind, headed by one of the young men, to be moving through the woods, let us follow them and watch their mode of procuring and cooking their different varieties of food.

MANNER OF HUNTING A KANGAROO SINGLY.

The moment an Australian savage commences his day’s hunting his whole manner and appearance undergo a wondrous change:  his eyes, before heavy and listless, brighten up, and are never for a moment fixed on one object; his gait and movements, which were indolent and slow, become quick and restless yet noiseless; he moves along with a rapid stealthy pace, his glance roving from side to side in a vigilant uneasy manner, arising from his eagerness to detect signs of game and his fears of hidden foes.  The earth, the