for a few days. By this time
food is likely to become scarce, or the immediate neighbourhood unclean,
and a change of locality is absolutely unavoidable. When the huts are
constructed, the ground is made level within, any little stumps of
bushes, or plants, stones, or other things being removed, and grass,
reeds, or leaves of trees frequently gathered and spread over the bottom,
to form a dry and soft bed; this and their opossum cloak constitute the
greatest degree of luxury to which they aspire. Occasionally native men,
in very cold weather, are both without huts and clothing of any kind. In
this case, many small fires are made (for the natives never make a large
one), by which they keep themselves warm. I have often seen single
natives sleep with a fire at their head, another at their feet, and one
on either side, and as close as ever they could make them without burning
themselves; indeed, sometimes within a very few inches of their bodies.

The weapons of the natives are simple and rudimental in character, but
varied in their kind and make, according to the purposes for which they
may be required, or the local circumstances of the district in which they
are used. The spear, which is the chief weapon of offence over all the
known parts of the continent, is of two kinds, one kind is used with the
throwing stick, and the other is thrown out of the hand; of each there
are four varieties that I am acquainted with. Of those launched with the
throwing stick there are--1, the kiko, or reed spear, pointed with hard
wood; 2, the kiero, or hard wood spear, with about two feet of the
flower-stem of the grass-tree jointed to the upper end; 3, a similar
weapon, with five or six jags cut in the solid wood of the point upon one
side; and 4, the light hard wood spear of Port Lincoln, and the coast to
the eastward, where a single barb is spliced on at the extreme point with
the sinew of the emu or the kangaroo: each spear averages from six to
eight feet in length, and is thrown with facility and precision to
distances, varying from thirty to one hundred yards, according to the
kind made use of, and the skill of the native in using it.

Of the large spear there is--1, the karkuroo, or smooth heavy spear, made
of the gum-scrub; 2, the same description of weapon, barbed with
fragments of flint or quartz; 3, another variety, having five or six jags
cut at the point, upon one side; and 4, a similar weapon, with the same
number of barbs c