When a messenger or visitor approaches a camp at night, he will not do so without announcing his arrival in advance by loudly calling from afar to the groups at the fireside. Should a person be discovered prowling the surroundings of a camp, without having heralded his coming, he runs grave risk of being speared, on the chance that he be on no good business.
In the way of salutations, hand-shaking and kissing are unknown, but when two friends meet it is quite the usual thing for them to walk together for a while, hand-in-hand. When a person, who has been long absent, returns to camp, everybody is so overcome with joy that he starts crying aloud as if his joy were grief.
On the occasion of friendly Arunndta groups visiting, all members of both parties, male and female, approach each other with their spears, boomerangs, shields, and fighting sticks. The visitors first sit down in a body while the others walk around them, in a widening course, flourishing their weapons high in the air and shrieking with joy; later they return the civilities by acting similarly.
When seating himself, an aboriginal always prefers the natural surface of the ground to any artificial or natural object, which might serve him in a manner suggestive of a chair. Rocks and fallen tree-trunks might occasionally be used, and children are sometimes seen sitting upon the lowest big branches of trees, especially if they slope downwards to the ground. But even in these cases they rarely allow the legs to dangle, preferring to draw them, bent in the knee, close against the body, and usually with the arms thrown around the legs or resting upon the knees.
The men use the same method, when squatting at ease upon the ground, keeping their thighs apart, heels touching and close against the buttocks, with their elbows resting upon their knees and their hands usually joined in front. When the hands are to be used, the sitter acquires greater stability by placing the feet further apart and swinging the arms over the knees.
Another common posture is to double the shins under the thighs and rest them half-laterally upon the ground. This method is frequently combined with the previously mentioned by holding one leg one way and the other the other.
From either of these positions, the sitter may change by tucking the shins well under the thighs and rolling on to the side of one of his thighs.
Again, he may change by simply stretching his legs forward full length.
These methods are made use of by men, women, and children alike. Unless it be that the person prefers his legs to remain in close apposition, whilst squatting in any of the positions indicated, he will endeavour to hide his shame behind one of his feet. This is particularly characteristic of the women, and their natural sense of decency is prettily described in the narration of the voyage in search of La Perouse as follows: “Though for the most part they are entirely naked, it appears to be a point of decorum with these ladies, as they sit with their knees asunder, to cover with one foot what modesty bids them conceal in that situation.”