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these a serpentine walk leads towards the villa, and reveals new beauties at every winding. In a small court at the back of the house, the famous fountain bursts forth, and passing through the under story falls into the lake. Pliny's description is inscribed in large characters in the hall, and is still supposed to give an accurate account of the phenomenon; but it is curious that the elder Pliny described the fountain as rising and decreasing every hour, while the younger spoke of the phenomenon as occurring thrice a day only. Mr. Eustace had the testimony of the inhabitants of the house that now, as in Pliny's time, it takes place usually thrice a day; "usually, because, in very stormy and tempestuous weather, the fountain is said to feel the influence of the disordered atmosphere, and to vary considerably in its motions." This latter circumstance has given rise to a conjectural explanation of this phenomenon, which is hazarded by the Abate Carlo Amoretti, and is as follows:-The west wind, which regularly blows upon the lake at twelve o'clock, or mid-day, begins at nine in the upper regions, or on the summits of the mountains; upon these summits, and particularly that which rises behind the Pliniana, there are several cavities that penetrate into the bowels of the mountain and communicate with certain internal reservoirs of water, the existence of which has been ascertained by various observations. Now, when the wind rushes down the cavities above mentioned, and reaches the water, it ruffles its surface, and carries its waves against the sides of the cavern, where, just above its ordinary level, there are little fissures, or holes. The water raised by the impulse which it receives from the wind, rises to these fissures, and passing through them, trickles down through the crevices that communicate with the fountain below, and gradually fills it. In stormy weather the water is impelled with greater violence, and flows in greater quantities, till it is nearly exhausted, or at least, reduced too low to be raised again to the fissures. Hence, on such occasions, the fountain fills with rapidity first, and then dries up, or rather remains low, till the reservoir regains its usual level. and, impelled by the wind, begins to ebb again.

ON THE LANGUAGE OF UNEDUCATED
PEOPLE.
II.

desirable, his playful mode of defending the cockney dialect has been followed.

The first evil to be noticed is the use of redundant negatives, such as, "I don't know nothing about it." Without wishing by any means to perpetuate what is now felt to be an error, it is yet submitted that this is a luxuriance of no modern date among the cockneys, though it is not of their own manufacture. The educated man of the present day may consider one negative as good as a thousand, but our ancestors thought otherwise, and so do the humble classes of our own times. Taking the language of France for a moment as a model,-a Frenchman answers a question negatively by "Je ne sais pas." If it is right for him to use two negatives, why is the Englishman restricted in this matter? Why may he not say, "I don't know nothing about it?" The abundant use of negatives is esteemed an elegance in the French language, and the French are extremely tenacious on this point. But if a cluster of negatives is poured from the mouth of an Englishman, he is considered anything but elegant in his speech, as was proved in the case of the citizen whose inquiry, at a tavern, "Han't nobody seen nothing of never a hat no-wheres?" has been carried as matter of ridicule to every part of the kingdom. Yet, absurd as the speech of the citizen may appear, a superabundance of negatives, almost as great as his, may be found in official documents, and in the writings of ancient poets. In a proclamation of King Henry the Fifth, for the apprehension of Sir John Oldcastle, on account of his contumacious behaviour in not accepting the terms before tendered to him, are these words: "Be it knowne, as Sire John Oldcastell refuse, nor will not receave, nor sue to have none of the graces," &c. The examples in the writings of Chaucer and of Shakspeare are too numerous for quotation: the two following must suffice. Thus Chaucer,

N'il means

So lowly, ne so truily you serve

N'il none of 'hem as I.-Troilus and Cressida. "will not." It is retained in the common expression, "will he, n'il he," implying whether he will or will not. One of the numerous instances of abundant negatives in Shakspeare occurs in the third act and fifth scene of Romeo and Juliet:

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A sudden day of joy,

as a matter of derision, and was thus employed in the distich at the end of the epitaph of P. P., the parish clerk, printed in Pope's works:

Do all we can, Death is a man
Who never spareth none.

That thou expect'st not, nor I look'd not for. The use of even the double negative is now discarded, not to say anything of three or four negatives, which, THE examples given in a former article will have been after examples from the Saxon, used to be accumulated sufficient to prove that, while there is much in the in one phrase 'some centuries ago. Early in the eighlanguage of uneducated people for which, notwithstand-teenth century the double negative was evidently treated ing the apparent inaccuracy of the expressions, we may find authority in our old writers, yet there is also much for which no such sanction can be pleaded, and which therefore must be attributed to the perversions and interpolations common amongst persons who have gone through the ordinary routine of learning to read without any exercise of the understanding therein. Their knowledge of words is chiefly derived from conversation with persons of their own class, equally liable with themselves to fall into errors of speech, and is little assisted by the remembrance of the lessons of former years. Those lessons were probably learned by rote, and if grammatical rules were given at all, they were perhaps such as the pupil could not comprehend, or apply to use. No wonder, then, that as we proceed to notice the phrases common among Londoners, and pretty general also in other parts of the country, we find more serious offences against correct language, than have yet come under our view. Yet as it happened that many of the errors in words might be defended by reference to the best writers of an earlier period, so it is the case with some of the phrases also.

The following are selected from Mr. Pegge's collection, in the work already alluded to; and as far as

Thus we find that, with respect to the use of negatives, the customs of former days have been handed down, and constantly adhered to by the lower orders, in defiance of improved modes of speech; nor will it ever be otherwise, unless the education given to children teaches them to think of what they are saying, instead of repeating their lessons like so many parrots.

Another common error among the same class of persons is, the enlarging the comparatives and superla tives, and instead of saying, "worse, worst; less, least," &c., to say, "worser, worstest; lesser, leastest," &c: but here, again, they have high authority on their side. Shakspeare, in King Lear, says,

Let thy worser spirit tempt me again.
And, again, in King Henry the Sixth,

Changed to a worser shape thou canst not be.
Dryden, as cited by Bishop Lowth, says,
And worser far

Than arms.

Shakspeare and Addison use "lesser" in the same way, | different, and incongruous in their infinitives; as from and so do many of our best writers.

I think there's ne'er a man in Christendom
Can lesser hide his love or hate than he.

King Richard III. Attend to what a lesser muse indites.-ADDISON, The Londoners are accused of inflaming the offence by sometimes saying "more worser," &c. It must be confessed that this is highly unnecessary, yet in Shakspeare's days there was no objection to it. In the Tempest it occurs thus,

Not that I am more better

Than Prospero.

And in Henry the Fifth there are two instances, Ne'er from France arrived more happier men. Act IV., sc. ult. None sharper than your swords.-Act III., sc. 5. But the love of augmentation does not stop here: our citizens must also plead guilty to the charge of using double superlatives; such as, "most impudentest, most ignorantest, most particularest, most agreeablest," &c. But have we not an example of double superlatives in the Psalms, in the expression, "Most Highest," allowed to be one of great force, and properly applicable to the Almighty. If it be said that this is a magnificent Eastern idiom, it may nevertheless be replied, that in later times St. Paul's expression was such as our translators could only do justice to by a double superlative, when he said, "After the most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee." In profane authors there are also many instances of the use of the double superlative. Sir Thomas More used the expression, "most basest;" Ben Jonson that of, "most ancientest;" John Lilly (of the time of Queen Elizabeth) that of, "most brightest; "and Shakspeare, "most boldest, most unkindest, most heaviest;" also in Hamlet the beautiful example,

But that I love thee best,

O most best, believe it.

The fact is that these are all Saxonisms, the modern prefix "most" being used instead of the ancient alder (older, or greater,) which the Saxons used for the same purpose of enhancing their superlatives. "Alderliefest Sovereign" is used by Shakspeare in Henry the Sixth, while the strange and contradictory terms "alder-first," and "alder-last," are used by Chaucer. Dr. Skinner gives us "alder-best," which agrees with Shakspeare's "most best." This word "alder-best" is exemplified in Latin, in the University term Senior Optime, which signifies elder-best of the graduates of the year. The word Junior Optime, (literally younger-best) is given as a relative term; but not after Saxon authority.

But however legitimate in Saxon times, expressions of this nature are now decidedly incorrect, and adherence to them is only to be pardoned in persons who have not had the advantage of education. In like manner the use of "knowed" for "knew" and "known," and of ."seed" for "saw" and "seen" may have much said in its defence, but is not reconcileable with modern usage. If a husbandman were to say to a cockney, "I sowed all my crops last week" the answer would probably be "I knowed would." you It is not likely that "knowed" should be discarded as erroneous, while "sowed" is retained as correct. The irregularity of our language is the cause of many of these errors, and its variableness is the cause of more. In the time of the translation of the New Testament, "crew" was the preterite of "crow -("the cock crew"); but in our days the word "crew has become obsolete, and "crowed" is allowed to be the proper word. "The received termination of such preterites as 'knew," says Mr. Pegge, "affords a pregnant example of the inconsistency of the English language. Verbs ending in ow have for the most part adopted the termination ew in the perfect tense; as blow, blew, grow, grew, &c.; while at the same time we have verbs totally

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29

slay we meet with slew; from fly, flew, and perhaps a few others while flow is obliged to be content with the regular preterite flowed, for we have never, I believe, heard of a river that flew."

"Knowed" is also used as a participle passive, as "I've knowed him for years;" and others, both preterites and participles passive, are formed on the same model, as his horse throwed him;" "the bill was throwed out of the House of Commons;" "he was drawed in to pay a sum of money;"❝he drawed upon his banker;""since he growed rich, he has growed proud," &c. Bishop Lowth says that we have preserved one passive participle, "known," from the irregular Saxon "know-en;" as likewise "thrown" and "drawn," from "throwen" and "drawen;" but while the cockney is used to such participles as "flowed, sowed, mowed," &c., he naturally forms others like them. On the same principle, "seed" passes current for "saw," and also for seen. The latter is a contraction of the Saxon "see-en," condemned by Bishop Lowth, and stigmatized by all Saxon grammarians as anomalous, the natural termination of such participle being either in ed or od.

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"Mought" is used for "might;" but this cannot be considered incorrect, since it was in common use in Chaucer's time, as was "mowe" instead of "may." In Fairfax's Tasso, translated at the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign, we find a similar word used:

Within the postern stood Argantes stout,
To rescue her, if ill mote her betide.

A true born Londoner, according to Mr. Pegge, always axes questions, axes pardon, axes leave, &c. This word ar for ask is common among the lower orders throughout the kingdom; but though it now sounds barbarous enough, it has nevertheless descended from our forefathers, whose writings show the constant use of the word. Chaucer uses the verb " axe," and the noun "an axing." Margaret, Countess of Richmond and Derby, in a letter to her son, Henry the Seventh, concludes with "As herty blessings as y can axe of God." In the next reign, Dr. Clerk writing to Wolsey, says, "The king axed after your grace's welfare." fare." In Chaucer's time, and subsequently, numbers of common words were written differently to the form in which we now see them: thus "briddes," for "birds;" "brunt," for "burnt;" "brun," for "burn;" "forst," for "frost;" "brest," for "burst," &c.; and we may still discover in the common dialect of the country vestiges of the ancient pronunciation. Londoners of the lower class frequently complain of being "thrusty,' instead of "thirsty." The confusion of the participle passive with the active preterite is an error, almost universal with the above class. They say "I have took (not taken) the parcel;" "he has fell (not 'fallen') down;" "she has wrote (not 'written') the letter." The only excuse for this is to say as before, that this is the old mode of speaking and writing, as will appear from the following instances.

"The sun has rose." SWIFT. "Have rose." PRIOR.

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"Sure

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"Have arose.' DRYDEN. "Had not arose." BOLINGBROKE. "Are arose." Comedy of Errors. some disaster has befel." GAY. He should have fell." PRIOR. "Wrote," for written, is used by Milton, Dryden, Clarendon, Prior, Swift, Bolingbroke, Bentley, Atterbury, and Addison, besides Shakspeare. Bishop Lowth says that the confusion of the past tense active, and the participle passive "prevails greatly in common discourse, and is too much authorized by our best writers." To exemplify the force of habit, he adds, we easily forgive such expressions as I have wrote, and I have bore;' while we should be startled at 'I have knew,' or 'I have saw; though in fact they are equally barbarous."

There is a term very common in London, and now confined to the uneducated, which in the time of Milton

CASTLE.

and of Shakspeare was not considered an indication of ATHELSTANE'S CHAPEL, CONISBOROUGH vulgarity. Cockneys are very fond of inviting each other to "fetch a walk;" and when describing a walk that is passed, they say "we faught a walk." This has a very dissonant sound with it, for most persons would as soon think of carrying, as of fetching, a walk; as for "faught," it is a curious deduction from "fetch;" but it follows the rule of caught from catch, and taught from teach, and we must not therefore be too strict in judging it. Now Shakspeare, in Cymbeline, makes even the

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queen say,

I'll fetch a turn about the garden, pitying
The pangs of barr'd affections.

Milton has adopted a similar expression in his Arcades:
When evening grey doth rise, I fetch my round
Over the mount, and all this hallowed ground.

At the commencement of the eighteenth century, however, this expression seems to have been considered vulgar, for Congreve puts it in the mouth of one of his characters in the play called the Way of the World, evidently intending thereby to make the speaker betray his low origin. "If that how you were disposed to fetch a walk this evening, I would have faught a walk with you." The term "faught" is entirely confined to a walk, for if anything portable is fetched, the cockney says "I fotch it," in the same way that he would say "I cotch cold," instead of "I caught cold."

The substitution of "learn" for "teach" is another

popular error. "Who learns you to play upon the music, Miss?" is no uncommon inquiry in some of the classes to which the piano has now unfortunately descended. But even here antiquity sanctions what modern linguists disallow. The Anglo-Saxon verb "laeran," modified into "learn," had indiscriminately both senses, and implied docere (to teach), as well as discere (to learn). Chaucer uses the word "lerne" in the sense of "teach;" and Shakspeare evidently considered them as words of equal import. Thus, in "As you like it," he says, "Unless you could teach me to forget a banished father, you must not learn me any extraordinary plea

sure."

And again in the Tempest, "You taught me language: the red plague rid you for learning me your speech." The translators of the Psalms doubtless employed the best English of the days in which they wrote, and there we find "learn" repeatedly used for "teach." "Remember," in the sense of "remind," is equally common among Londoners and country people: thus we have the common phrase, "Will you remember me of it?" Shakspeare employs this repeatedly, and Dr. Johnson brings forward the following instances:-In Henry IV., Worcester says

I must remember you, my lord,

We were the first and dearest of your friends.

In King John, Act III., Scene 4.

CONST. Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
lies in his bed,

Remembers me of all his gracious parts.

In Richard II., Act III., Scene 4.

QUEEN. It doth remember me the more of sorrow.

WE found many humming-birds at Port San Antonio, which we attributed to the sheltered situation of the place, and the luxuriant growth of fuschias and other plants, upon the sweets of whose flowers they feed. Here, however, one of the same species was seen sporting about in a most exposed place, and during the fall of a snow-shower, a proof of the hardy character of this little bird, which, if it does migrate upon the approach of winter to a warmer clime, lingers, at least, as long as it possibly can. This was the middle of April; the winter had, in fact, already commenced, and all the mountains around us were clothed with snow, while the ground was also coated with the same dazzling covering.-Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle.

THE interesting chapel above represented forms a portion of the keep of Conisborough Castle, Yorkshire, and is often allowed to remain unvisited on account of the The castle personal risk attending an ascent to it. itself has already been briefly described in these pages*, and if we turn to the third volume of Ivanhoe, we shall

find the pen of Sir Walter Scott employed in depicting the appearance of the castle, and the neighbouring "There are few more beautiful or striking scenery. sented by the vicinity of this Saxon fortress. The soft and scenes in England," says the great novelist, "than are pregentle river Don sweeps through an amphitheatre, in which cultivation is richly blended with woodland, and on a mount, ascending from the river, well defended by walls and ditches, rises this ancient edifice, which, as its Saxon name implies, was, previous to the Conquest, a royal residence of the kings of England. The outer walls have probably been added by the Normans, but the inner keep bears tokens of very great antiquity. It is situated on a mount at one angle of the inner court, and forms a complete circle of perhaps twenty-five feet in diameter. The wall is of immense thickness, and is propped or defended by six huge external buttresses, which project from the circle and rise up against the sides of the tower to strengthen or to support it. These massive buttresses are hollowed out towards the top, and terminate in a sort of turrets communicating with the interior of the keep itself. The distant appearance of this huge building, with these singular accompaniments, is as interesting to the lovers of the picturesque as the interior of the castle is to the eager antiquary, whose imagination it carries back to the days of the Heptarchy."

In order to reach Athelstane's chapel, the visitor must enter the great tower by a mode which partakes of the rude simplicity of early times, and is also described in the work above referred to. A flight of deep, narportal in the south side of the tower, by which the row, and almost precipitous steps, leads up to a small adventurous antiquary may gain access to a small stair, within the thickness of the main wall of the tower, which leads up to a third story of the building, the two *See Saturday Magazine, Vol. V., p. 45.

lewer being dungeons or vaults, which neither receive air or light, save by a square opening in the third story, with which they seem to have communicated by a ladder. The chapel is on the eastern side of the keep, and is formed in one of the external buttresses, and those who would visit it must pass along a narrow ledge, or projection, on which the floor of the principal apartment originally rested. It requires steady nerves to accomplish this, for the projection is only a few inches broad, and the person who ventures along it is obliged to secure himself from falling by means of a few iron nails or cramps driven into the wall for that purpose, and these failing he may topple down headlong, and break his neck. Such is the account given by Rhodes, in his Yorkshire Scenery, and confessing that he had not the hardihood to visit the chapel himself, he gives the description and drawing furnished by a friend. The former is as follows:-"In addition to a little room over the entrance, on a level with the highest floor, there is a small chapel, inclosed, like the stairs, in one of the buttresses. Its form is six-sided, its length about fifteen feet, and its greatest width not exceeding nine: a narrow loophole at the end, and a small circular opening on each side, have served for the admission of light into this little apartment. The ornamented arches supporting the roof, which is about twelve feet high, intersect each other at their highest points. They spring from pillars, whose capitals, richly carved, bear some resemblance to the Ionic. Two recesses in the wall, about a yard from the floor, may possibly have been used for holy water. On the left, a doorway opens from the chapel to an adjoining oratory, not more than six feet square, which is lighted, like the chapel, by a narrow loop-hole.'

The date of this chapel, and of the edifice of which it forms a part, is not to be precisely ascertained. The strength and excellence of the masonry, which in the principal parts of the edifice has resisted for ages the effects of time, has led to the opinion that it is of Roman origin. The stones are "well tooled upon the surface, and the cement by which they are united, is even now as firm and compact as the stone itself," but so essentially does the structure differ from all others in the kingdom which are understood to be of Roman architecture, that considerable doubts exist on this point. Neither does the style of Conisborough agree with that of any Saxon or Norman edifice. in this kingdom. In this uncertainty, Mr. King, in his Munimenta Antiqua, advances a theory, which supposes this fortress to have been erected as early as the middle of the first century, by Cartismandua, Queen of the Brigantes, who is supposed to have had her chief residence at Aldborough, in Yorkshire, which at that time was a royal city. He is of opinion that this place was not built during the presence of the Romans in this country; but if not so early as the time of the Queen of the Brigantes, certainly not later than the commencement of the fifth century, and immediately after the departure of the armies of the Cæsars. Whatever may have been the precise time of the erection of this castle, it seems generally admitted by all who have visited the spot, that it must have been at one of the most barbarous periods in the history of this country. That part of the building intended for a prison forms the most dismal of dungeons. "No place," says Mr. Rhodes, can possibly be more appalling to look down into than this odious pit. The blood curdles, and the heart grows cold at the idea of human creatures having been thrust into such a vile cell, and incarcerated in a place fit only for the abode of toads and vipers. The apartment immediately above was probably a guard room, which, when closed, excluded both light and air from the wretched sufferers." Of the more habitable parts of the castle the same writer remarks, " If it ever were a residence of the princes and nobles of the land, it abundantly shows that their comforts might be restricted within a very narrow compass, and that, notwithstanding their elevated rank, they were accustomed to the dangers and privations incident to a state of trouble and warfare, the places in which they resided being evidently constructed more for security than convenience."

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The architecture of the chapel differs from that of the other parts of the edifice, but it is looked upon as merely an appropriate deviation from the castellate to the ecclesiastical style, and the general feeling on entering it is that it was undoubtedly constructed for religious purposes, and with a Christian prepossession. The following passages from Ivanhoe refer to this chapel, in the buttress, with its adjoining oratory. Sir Walter Scott made this castle the residence of his Saxon chieftain Athelstane.

Cedric arose, and extending his hand to Richard, conducted him into a small and very rude chapel, which was excavated, as it were, out of one of the external buttresses. the place would have been nearly quite dark but for two As there was no opening, saving a very narrow loop-hole, flambeaux or torches, which showed by a red and smoky light, the arched roof and naked walls, the rude altar of stone, and the crucifix of the same material. Before this altar was placed a bier, and on each side of this bier kneeled three priests, who told their beads and muttered their prayers with the greatest signs of external devotion. This act of pious charity performed, Cedric again motioned them to follow him, gliding over the stone floor with a noiseless tread; and, after ascending a few steps, opened, with great caution, the door of a small oratory which adjoined to the chapel. It was about eight feet square, hollowed, like the chapel itself, out of the thickness of the wall; and the loop-hole, which enlightened it, being to the west, and widening considerably as it sloped inward, a beam of the setting sun found its way into its dark recess, and showed a female of a dignified mien, and whose countenance retained the marked remains of majestic beauty. Her long flowing robes, and her flowing wimple of black cypress, enhanced the whiteness of her skin, and the beauty of her light-coloured and flowing tresses, which time had neither thinned nor mingled with silver. Her countenance expressed the deepest sorrow that is constant with resignation. On the stone table before her having its pages richly illuminated, and its boards adorned stood a crucifix of ivory, beside which was laid a missal, with clasps of gold, and bosses of the same precious metal.

THE PLACE OF REST.

THERE is an hour of peaceful rest,
To mourning wanderers given;
There is a tear for souls distrest,
A balm for every wounded breast-
'Tis found above-in heaven!
There is a soft, a downy bed,

'Tis fair as breath of even;

A couch for weary mortals spread,
Where they may rest their aching head,
And find repose in heaven!
There is a home for weeping souls, ́

By sin and sorrow driven,
When toss'd on life's tempestuous shoals,
Where storms arise, and ocean rolls,

And all is drear-but heaven! There Faith lifts up the tearful eye,

The heart with anguish riven;
And views the tempest passing by,
The evening shadows quickly fly,

And all serene in heaven!
There fragrant flowers immortalbloom,
And joys supreme are given:
There rays divine disperse the gloom;
Beyond the confines of the tomb

Appears the dawn of heaven!-ANON.

Ir is indisputable that the great movements which stir society from its very foundations, are invariably produced by the workings of the living spirit of man. The sense of moral and intellectual want, which disposes men to seize on new opinions, often lies for centuries fermenting in the fathomless depths of the heart of society. At length, in the fulness of time, arises one of those master-spirits, endowed with the genius, energy, and confidence which fit a man to wield these moral forces; to reveal to his age the wants of which it had but a dim and perplexed consciousness; to interpret to it its own confused and half-formed opinions, and to give them shape, compactness, and strength.-RANKE.

RECENT INTELLIGENCE RESPECTING THE

ABORINGES OF KING GEORGE'S SOUND. WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

III.

IN concluding the history of the natives of King George's Sound we present the reader with a few particulars not noticed by Governor Phillipps.

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The dress of the natives consists of a cloak of kangaroo skin, reaching nearly to the knee; it is worn as a mantle over the shoulders, and is fastened with a rush, by which the right arm is left free and disencumbered. They are seldom seen without their cloaks, which in rainy weather are worn with the fur outwards; some of them, however, are so scanty that the wearer may be considered almost in a state of nudity, particularly the children, whose cloaks are mere strips of skin. The larger skins procured from the male kangaroos, are appropriated to the women.

The mode of preparing the mantles is as follows: the skins are pegged out upon the ground to dry, and are then cut into the proper shape with a sharpened stone; with the same instrument the inner surface is scraped away until the skin becomes soft and pliable; it is after wards rubbed over with grease and a sort of red ochreous earth, which they also use to paint the body. The skins thus prepared are stitched together with the sinews of the animal, which are drawn from the tail. The other articles of dress are the noodle-bul, or waistband, armlets, and head-dress. The noodle-bul is a long yarn of worsted, spun from the fur of the opossum, wound round the waist several hundred times. A similar band is also worn occasionally round the left arm and the head.

Contrary to the usual order of things, the females neglect these ornaments, while the single men make a great display, decking their heads with feathers, dogtails, and other similar articles, and sometimes having the hair long, and bound round the head. The women keep their hair quite short, and do not wear either the noodle-bul or ornaments; young girls sometimes have a fillet of worsted yarn, called woortil, round the neck. Both sexes smear their faces and bodies with red pigment (paloil), mixed with grease, which gives them a disagreeable odour. They do this, as they say, for the purpose of keeping themselves clean, and as a defence from the sun and rain. Their hair is frequently matted with the same pigment. When fresh painted, they are all over of a brickdust colour, which gives them a most singular appearance. By way of mourning the men paint a white streak across the forehead and down the cheek bones, and the women put on the white colour in large blotches. Painting the body is used simply as an ornament, and for the purposes aforesaid; and not, as in New South Wales, as a sign of war.

The natives of King George's Sound have the same custom as at Sydney of cutting gashes on their body, and raising an elevated cicatrix. It is done chiefly on the shoulders and chest, and is considered an honourable distinction, as well as a characteristic of particular tribes. Every individual when travelling, carries a firestick for the purpose of kindling fires, and in winter the practice of carrying one under the cloak, for the sake of heat, is almost universal. This fire-stick is generally a cone of Banksia grandis, or of some other wood which has the property of remaining ignited for a considerable time. The weapons used by these people are spears of two or three kinds, and are propelled by a throwing stick (meara). The spears are made of a long slender stick, about the thickness of the finger, but heavy and tough. They are scraped down to a very fine point, and are hardened and straightened by the assistance of fire. Hunting and fishing spears are barbed with a piece of wood, fastened on very neatly and firmly with kangaroo sinew, and the ligature covered with gum ob

tained from the grass tree. They are about eight feet long. The war spears are longer and heavier, and are armed, for five or six inches from the point, with pieces of sharp stones fixed in gum, resembling the teeth of a saw, the stones increasing in size from the point. Each man carries from two to five spears. The throwing stick is about two feet long, and four inches wide, narrowing at each extremity. At the handle is fixed a piece of gum, in which is inserted a sharp-edged stone, which is used to scrape the point of the spear when blunted by use. At the outer end is a small wooden peg, which is inserted into a hole at the end of the spear, and by which it is propelled. This throwing stick is also used in close fights. A short stick called torok is also used for throwing at and striking small animals. Their hammer is made with a lump of gum having two stones imbedded in it, stuck on to the extremity of a short stick; their knife is a stick with sharpedged stones, fixed in a bed of gum at the end, and for two or three inches down the side, forming a serrated instrument.

The huts formed by this people consist merely of a few small sticks stuck in the ground, and bent over in the form of a bower, about four feet high, and five or six wide. Sometimes two are united. These huts are slightly thatched with the leaves of the grass tree, or in rainy weather roofed with pieces of bark, upon. which stones are placed to prevent their being blown away; but which afford miserable protection from the weather. They are generally erected in a sheltered spot near water, with the back towards the prevailing wind, and a fire kept constantly burning in front. One of the huts contains several individuals, who lie covered in their mantles, huddled together in a crowded state: the dogs are also admitted to a share of their bed. An encampment sometimes consists of seven or eight of these huts, at other times of only two or three. The huts are so arranged as not to overlook each other: the single men have one to themselves; the children sleep with the women in a large hut near the husband's. The dwellers in the same encampment are generally near relations. The natives who live together have the exclusive right of fishing or hunting upon the neighbouring grounds, which are, in fact, individual properties, the quantity of land owned by each individual being very considerable; yet others of his family have certain rights over it, so that it may be considered as partly belonging to the tribe. But these people are seldom stationary long together; they move from place to place to procure the articles of provision which may be in season. It is in summer that these people procure their game in the greatest abundance, and this they do by setting fire to the sides of the cover in which the game is inclosed, by means of a torch made of the leaves of the grass tree. The hunters concealed by the smoke, stand in the paths most frequented by the animals, and easily spear them as they pass by. Vast numbers of animals are thus destroyed, and the violence of the fire sometimes extends for miles, though this is generally guarded against by burning it in consecutive portions. When the game has thus been secured, and the fire has passed over the ground, the natives walk over the ashes in search of lizards and snakes. The hunters are much assisted by their dogs, which they take when young, and domesticate, but they take little pains to train them to any particular mode of hunting. These dogs have a very fine scent, and draw upon their game like the pointer, after which they spring upon o chase it. The owner of a dog is entitled to an extra proportion of the game killed. The dogs themselves are not very well kept. Their food consists of vegetables, roots roasted and pounded, the entrails of auimals, and such bones as are too hard for the teeth of the natives. Sometimes the dog is so ill-fed that he is obliged to leave his master and provide for himself; but

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