cisions: the
loathsome eruption, called the native leprosy, they relieved by
wallowing in ashes: the catarrh was very destructive, in certain
seasons; a whole tribe on the Huon perished, except one woman. The
native doctor said, that it was the _devil_ that killed them: the woman
described the process by feigned coughing. Their surgery was simple:
they cut gashes with crystal. They treated a snake bite by boring the
wound with a charred peg; stuffed it with fur, and then singed off the
surplus to the level of the skin. They had faith in charms: thigh bones
were especially useful, and were fastened on the head in a triangle:
these relics were found very effectual. There were some who practised
more than others, and therefore called doctors by the English: one of
these feigned inspiration, and brandished his club. The sick were often
deserted: their tribes could neither convey them, nor wait for their
recovery. Food and a lenitive were left within their reach, and when
able they followed their kinsmen; the alternative is the terrible risk
of a wandering life. This custom was modified by circumstances, and
sometimes by the relatives of the sufferer.

Like the natives of New South Wales, they called to each other, from a
great distance, by the _cooey_; a word meaning "come to me." The Sydney
blacks modulated this cry, with successive inflexions; the Tasmanian
uttered it with less art. It is a sound of great compass. The English,
in the bush, adopt it: the first syllable is prolonged; the second is
raised to a higher key, and is sharp and abrupt.[35]

_Funereal._--When they felt the approach of death, they were anxious to
expire in the open air, and requested to be carried forth, even from the
houses erected for their use. They believed that the spirit lingers in
the body until sun-down. The French naturalist, Labillardiere, first
noticed the burning of the dead. His account was ridiculed by the
Quarterly Reviewers, who suspected cannibalism; but there are proofs
innumerable, that this was a practice of affection. A group of blacks
was watched, in 1829, while engaged in a funeral. A fire was made at the
foot of a tree: a naked infant was carried in procession, with loud
cries and lamentations; when the body was decomposed in the flames, the
skull was taken up by a female,--probably the mother. The skull was long
worn wrapt in kangaroo skin: Backhouse observed a couple who carried,
alternately, this ghastly memento of their