s his legs under him, and seats himself upon
his heels before the fire; he calls to his wife for pieces of quartz and
some dried kangaroo sinews, then forthwith begins sharpening and
polishing his spears, and whilst thus occupied, sings to himself:

I'll spear his liver,
I'll spear his lights,
I'll spear his heart,
I'll spear his thigh,
etc. etc. etc.

After a while he pauses and examines the point he has been working at; it
is very sharp, and he gives a grunt of satisfaction. His wives now chime
in:

The wooden-headed,
Bandy-legged,
Thin-thighed fellows--
The bone-rumped,
Long-shinned,
Thin-thighed fellows.

The old gentleman looks rather more murderous but withal more pleasant,
and as he begins to sharpen his second spear he chants out:

I'll spear their liver,
I'll spear their bowels,
I'll spear their hearts,
I'll spear their loins.

As he warms on the subject he ships his spear in the throwing-stick,
quivers it in the air, and imitates rapidly the adventures of the fight
of the coming day: then the recollections of the deeds of his youth rush
through his mind; he changes his measure to a sort of recitative, and
commences an account of some celebrated fray of bygone times; the
children and young men crowd round from the neighbouring huts, the old
gentleman becomes more and more vociferous, first he sticks his spear
point under his arm and lies on his side to imitate a man dying, yet
chanting away furiously all the time, then he grows still more animated,
occasionally adjusting his spear with his throwing-stick and quivering it
with a peculiar grace. The young women now come timidly up to see what is
going on; little flirtations take place in the background, whereat the
very elderly gentlemen with very young wives, whose dignity would be
compromised by appearing to take an interest in passing events, and who
have therefore remained seated in their own huts, wax jealous, and
despatch their mothers and aged wives to look after the younger ladies.
These venerable females have a dread of evil spirits, and consequently
will not move from the fire without carrying a fire-stick in their hands;
the bush is now dotted about with these little moving points of fire, all
making for a common centre, at which are congregated old and young; jest
follows jest, one peal of laughter rings close upon the heels of another,
the elderly gentleman is loudly applauded by the bystanders, and, having
fairly sung the wrath out of