These wood natives also make a paste formed of the fern-root and the large and small ant bruised together; in the season they also add the eggs of this insect.

APPENDIX V--COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE

How will the refined ear of gallantry be wounded at reading an account of the courtship of these people! I have said that there was a delicacy visible in the manners of the females. Is it not shocking then to think that the prelude to love in this country should be violence? Yet such it is, and of the most brutal nature of these unfortunate victims of lust and cruelty (I can call them by no better name) are, I believe, always selected from the women of a tribe different from that of the males (for they ought not to be dignified with the title of men) and with whom they are at enmity. Secrecy is necessarily observed, and the poor wretch is stolen upon in the absence of her protectors; being first stupified with blows, inflicted with clubs or wooden swords, on the head, back, and shoulders, every one of which is followed by a stream of blood, she is dragged through the woods by one arm, with a perseverance and violence that one might suppose would displace it from its socket; the lover, or rather the ravisher, is regardless of the stones or broken pieces of trees which may lie in his route, being anxious only to convey his prize in safety to his own party, where a scene ensues too shocking to relate. This outrage is not resented by the relations of the female, who only retaliate by a similar outrage when they find it in their power. This is so constantly the practice among them, that even the children make it a game or exercise; and I have often, on hearing the cries of the girls with whom they were playing, ran out of my house, thinking some murder was committed, but have found the whole party laughing at my mistake.

The women thus ravished become their wives, are incorporated into the tribe to which the husband belongs, and but seldom quit him for another.

Many of the men with whom we were acquainted did not confine themselves to one woman. Bennillong, previous to his visit to England, was possessed of two wives (if wives they may be called), both living with him and attending on him wherever he went. One named Ba-rang-a-roo, who was of the tribe of Cam-mer-ray (Bennillong himself was a Wahn-gal), lived with him at the time he was seized and brought a captive to the settlemerit with Cole-be; and before her death he had brought off from Botany Bay, by the violence before described, Go-roo-bar-roo-bool-lo, the daughter of an old man named Met-ty, a native of that district; and she continued with him until his departure for England. We were told, on the banks of the Hawkesbury, that all the men there, and inland, had two wives. Cole-be, Bennillong's friend, had two female companions; and we found, indeed, more instances of plurality of wives than of monogamy. I do not recollect ever noticing children by both; and observed, that in general, as might be expected, the two women were always jealous of and quarrelling with each other. I have heard them say, that the first wife claimed a priority of attachment and exclusive right to the conjugal embrace; while the second or latter choice was compelled to be the slave and drudge of both.

Chastity was a virtue in which they certainly did not pride themselves; at least, we knew women who, for a loaf of bread, a blanket, or a shirt, gave up any claim to it, when either was offered by a white man; and many white men were found who held out the temptation. Several girls, who were protected in the settlement, had not any objection to passing the night on board of ships, though some had learned shame enough (for shame was not naturally inherent in them) to conceal, on their landing, the spoils they had procured during their stay. They had also discovered that we thought it shameful to be seen naked; and I have observed many of them extremely reserved and delicate in this respect when before us; but when in the presence of only their own people, perfectly indifferent about their appearance.

APPENDIX VI--CUSTOMS AND MANNERS

During the time of parturition these people suffer none but females to be present. War-re-weer, Bennillong's sister, being taken in labour in the town, an opportunity offered of observing them in that critical juncture, of which some of our women, who were favourites with the girl, were desired to avail themselves; and from them we learned, that during her labour one female, Boo-roong, was employed in pouring cold water from time to time on the abdomen, while another, tying one end of a small line round War-re-weer's neck, with the other end rubbed her own lips until they bled. She derived no actual assistance from those who were about her, the child coming into the world by the sole efforts of nature; neither did any one receive it from her; but, having let it drop, one of our women divided the umbilical cord; after which, she retired to a small hole which had been prepared for her, over which she sat until the after-birth took place. The person who cut the navel-string washed the child, which she readily permitted, though Boo-roong and the other natives objected to it. She appeared much exhausted, and, being faint, fell across a fire that was in the place, but without receiving any injury.

I saw Bennillong's wife a few hours after she had been delivered of a child. To my great surprise she was walking about alone, and picking up sticks to mend her fire. The infant, whose skin appeared to have a reddish cast, was lying in a piece of soft bark on the ground, the umbilical cord depending about three inches from the navel. I remained with her for some time, during which she was endeavouring to get it off, to effect which she made use of the small bone of the leg of the kangaroo, round the point of which Bennillong had rolled some punk, so that it looked not unlike the button of a foil. She held it every now and then to the fire, then applied and pressed it to the navel until it cooled. This was persevered in, till the mother thought the cord sufficiently deadened, and then with a shell she separated it.*

[* I here find in my papers a note, that for some offence Bennillong had severely beaten this woman in the morning, a short time before she was delivered.]