terview, but giving them time to recover from the surprise into which
my presence had thrown them, I attribute my success in avoiding any
hostile collision. I am sure, indeed, whatever instances of violence and
murder may be recorded of them, they are naturally a mild and inoffensive
people.

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
ap