It is a remarkable fact that we seldom or ever saw weapons in the hands of any of the natives of the interior, such as we did see were similar to those ordinarily used by natives of other parts of the continent.  Their implements were simple and rude, and consisted chiefly of troughs for holding water or seeds, rush bags, skins, stones, etc.  The native habitations, at all events those of the natives of the interior, with the exception of the Cooper’s Creek tribe, had huts of a much more solid construction than those of the natives of the Murray or the Darling, although some of their huts were substantially built also.  Those of the interior natives however were made of strong boughs with a thick coating of clay over leaves and grass.  They were entirely impervious to wind and rain, and were really comfortable, being evidently erections of a permanent kind to which the inhabitants frequently returned.  Where there were villages these huts were built in rows, the front of one hut being at the back of the other, and it appeared to be a singular but universal custom to erect a smaller hut at no great distance from the large ones, but we were unable to detect for what purpose they were made, unless it was to deposit their seeds; as they were too small even for children to inhabit.  At the little hut to the north of the ranges, from which the reader will recollect we twice frightened away a poor native, we found a very large spear, apparently for a canoe, which I brought to the camp.  This spear could not possibly have been used as a weapon, for it was too heavy, but on shewing it subsequently to some natives, they did not intimate that it was a canoe spear.

It may be thought that having been in the interior for so many months I ought to have become acquainted with many of the customs and habits of the people inhabiting it, but it will have been seen that they seldom came near us.

The custom of circumcision generally prevailed, excepting with the Cooper’s Creek tribe, but you would meet with a tribe with which that custom did not prevail, between two with which it did.

As regards their food, it varies with the season.  That which they appeared to me to use in the greatest abundance were seeds of various kinds, as of grasses of several sorts, of the mesembryanthemum, of the acacia and of the box-tree; of roots and herbs, of caterpillars and moths, of lizards and snakes, but of these there are very few.  Besides these they sometimes take the emu and kangaroo, but they are never so plentiful as to constitute a principal article of food.  They take ducks when the rains favour their frequenting the creeks and lagoons, exactly as the natives of other parts of Australia do, with nets stuck up to long poles, and must procure a sufficiency of birds during the summer season.  They also wander among the sand ridges immediately after a fall of rain, to hunt the jerboa and talperoo, (see Nat.  Hist.,) of which they procure vast supplies; but all these sports are temporary, particularly the latter, as the moment the puddles dry up the natives are forced to retreat and fall back on previous means of subsistence.