If I except the tribe upon Cooper’s Creek¹, on which they are numerous, the natives are but thinly scattered² over the interior, as far as our range extended. The few families wandering over those gloomy regions may scarcely exceed one hundred souls. They are a feeble and diminutive³ race when compared to the river tribes, but they have evidently sprung from the same parent stock, and local circumstances may satisfactorily and clearly account for physical differences of appearance. Like the tribes of the Darling and the Murray, and indeed like the aborigines of the whole continent, they have the quick and deep set eye, the rapidly retiring forehead, and the great enlargement of the frontal sinus, the flat nose and the thick lip. It is quite true that many have not the depression of the head so great, but in such cases I think an unusual proportion of the brain lies behind the ear. In addition, however, to the above physiognomical resemblances, they have the same disproportion between the upper region of the body and the lower extremities⁴, the same prominent chest, and the same want of muscular development, and in common with all the natives I have seen, their beards are strong and stand out from the chin, and their hair the finest ornament⁵ they possess, only that they destroy its natural beauty by filth⁶ and neglect, is both straight and curly. Their skins are nearly of the same hue⁷; nor did we see any great difference, excepting in one woman, whose skin was of a jet black. Two young women, however, were noticed who had beautiful glossy⁸ ringlets, of which they appeared to be exceedingly proud, and kept clean, as if they knew their value. Both Mr. Browne and myself observed a great disparity of numbers in the male and female children, there being an excess of the latter of nearly two to one, and in some instances of a still greater disproportion.

分享到：