women, who noisily intimate their designs, and endeavour by clamor and threats to influence the leaders of their tribe. The young men, and those amongst the elders who have not distinguished themselves, and the women and the children, are led by the principal man of the tribe; but he acts only in such manner as the old men and the sorcerers and the dreamers have agreed to approve. Though each of the principal men and priests seeks for his food, and
blables à celui que je viens de décrire. Quelque grossiéres que de tettes habitations puissent être, elles n'en sont pas moins les plus parfaites que nous ayons en l'occasion d'observer à la Nouvelle-Hollande; sous ce rapport, il en est de même des cabanes dout j'ai déjà parlé, mais qu'il convient de faire connoître ici dans tous leurs détails. Sur un sol de sable précédemment dépouillé de toute espèce de végétaux, s'élèvent ces cabanes de la terre d'Endracht; elles ont la forme d'une demi-sphère légèrement déprimée dans sa partie supérieure; le developpement de leurs parois décrit un tour de spire; de manière que l'entrée en est oblique et latérale, à-peu-près comme celle d'une coquille de limaçon. Leur hauteur est de 12 à 16 décimètres (4 à 5 pieds) sur un diamètre de 20 à 25 décimètres (6 à huit pieds). Elles se composent d'arbrisseaux implantés dans le sable, rapprochés entre eux, le plus ordinairement disposés sur deux ou trois rangs; et dont les rameaux, recourbés dans toutes les directions, entrecroisés dans tous les sens, forment la voûte supérieure, et comme le plancher de ces habitations. Sur cette voûte sont appliquées à l'extérieur plusieurs couches de feuillages et d'herbes sèches, recouvertes d'une grande quantité de sable. A peu de distance et vis-à-vis l'ouverture de chacune de ces espèces de fours, on voit les restes d'autant de gros feux, autour desquels gisent ça et là quelques débris d'alimens."—Voyage de Découvertes aux Terres Australes, pendant les années 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, et 1804, par M. F. Péron, vol. II., p. 207.
Ernest Giles says, "At ten miles, I came to a number of native huts; they were of large dimensions and two-storied."—Travels in Central Australia, p. 81.
In another place—near Glen Osborne—Giles found several native huts in the scrub, of large dimensions, the natives having used the largest trees they could get to build them with. He supposed that the natives get water in this arid tract from the roots of the Mulga-tree. Near some of the Mulga-trees he noticed that circular pits had been dug. The trees, he says, die after being tapped.—Ibid, p. 103.
In tracing the course of the Gwydir, Sir Thomas Mitchell found "huts of a native tribe tastefully distributed amongst drooping acacias and casuarinæ; some resembling bowers under yellow, fragrant mimosæ; some were isolated under the deeper shades of casuarinæ; while others were placed more socially—three or four huts together fronting to one and the same fire. Each was semicircular or circular, the roof conical, and from one side a flat roof stood forward like a portico supported by two sticks. Most of them were close to the trunk of a tree; and they were covered—not, as in other parts, by sheets of bark, but with a variety of materials such as reeds, grass, and boughs. The interior of each looked clean, and to us, passing in the rain, gave some idea not only of shelter, but even of comfort and happiness."—Vol. I., p. 76.
In sight of the Nundawàr Range, the same explorer found huts substantially constructed, and well-thatched with dry grass and reeds.—Vol. I., p. 121.
On the Lower Darling, he saw huts of a strong and permanent construction, each forming a semicircle, and facing inwards or to the centre, the open side of the curve being towards the east. One hut was unusually capacious and on a commodious plan, and might easily have contained twelve or fifteen persons. Sir Thomas Mitchell gives a plan of this hut in his work. In it were many small bundles of the wild flax, evidently in a state of preparation for making cord or line nets, and for other purposes. Each bundle consisted of a handful of stems twisted and doubled once, but the decayed state of these showed that the hut had been deserted.—Vol. I., p. 262.
Bunce describes the formation of a camp when a tribe was overtaken in a storm:—"There were signs of rain, the sky became overcast, thunder was heard in the distance, and forked lightning played amongst the branches of the trees. The women were busy with their tomahawks in stripping large flakes or sheets of bark from the stringybark trees, and setting forks and saplings whereon to place the bark for the erection of willams, or dwellings, as a shelter. The only parties disengaged were the blackfellows, whose duties appeared to be to pray for fine weather by a continued melancholy chant. This office they continued for a short time after the rain commenced, and when all the rest of us had retired under shelter; but finding that their good divinity, in the
