The others were generally much younger, but some of them, though not clean past their youth, yet had about them some smacks of the saltness of age.  The old man was the most self-possessed; the others displayed a nervous tremor at our approach; those nearest us sidled closer to their more remote and, as they no doubt thought, fortunate fellows; they were all extremely ill-favoured in face, but their figures were not so outres, except that they appeared emaciated and starved, otherwise they would have been men of good bulk.  Their legs were straight, and their height would average five feet nine inches, all being much taller than Mr. Tietkens or I. Two remained at a distance; these had a great charge to superintend, it being no less than that of the trained wild dogs belonging to the tribe.  There were three large dogs, two of a light sandy, and one of a kind of German colley colour.  These natives were armed with an enormous number of light barbed spears, each having about a dozen.  They do not appear to use the boomerang very generally in this part of the continent, although we have occasionally picked up portions of old ones in our travels.  Mr. Tietkens gave each of these natives a small piece of sugar, with which they seemed perfectly charmed, and in consequence patted the seat of their intellectual—­that is to say, digestive—­organs with great gusto, as the saccharine morsels liquefied in their mouths.  They seemed highly pleased with the appearance and antics of my little dog, who both sat and stood up at command in the midst of them.

They kept their own dogs away, I presume, for fear we might want to seize them for food—­wild dog standing in about the same relation to a wild Australian native, as a sheep would to a white man.  They eat all the grown dogs they can catch, but keep a few pups to train for hunting, and wonderful hunting dogs they are.  Hence their fear of our taking their pets.  The old gentleman was much delighted with my watch.  I then showed them some matches, and the instantaneous ignition of some grass in the midst of them was rather too startling a phenomenon for their weak minds; some of them rose to depart.  The old man, however, reassured them.  I presented him with several matches, and showed him how to use them; he was very much pleased, and having no pockets in his coat—­for I might have previously remarked they were arrayed in Nature’s simple garb—­he stuck them in his hair.  Mr. Tietkens, during this time, was smoking, and the sight of smoke issuing from his mouth seemed to disturb even the old man’s assumed imperturbability, and he kept much closer to me in consequence.  I next showed them a revolver, and tried to explain the manner of using it.  Most of them repeated the word bang when I said it; but when I fired it off they were too agitated to take much notice of its effect on the bark of a tree, which might otherwise have served to point a moral or adorn a tale in the oral traditions of their race for ever.  At the