At Every Halt, However Short, If Whoever Was Leading Them
Stopped, Even To Pull Out A Piece Of Spinifex Which
Had found its way
through some hole in his boot, they would take advantage of it and
"plump" down on
The sand; and whilst one was being goaded up, down would
go the rest. Poor Prempeh had to be unloaded and dragged behind.
Less than a mile beyond where Breaden had turned back we came on the
biggest camp of natives we had seen - quite a village! Perhaps a dozen
little "wurlies" or branch-shelters were dotted about the foot of a
sandhill. Camped under them we found one buck, several gins, and numerous
picaninnies; it was clear that more were not far off. The first thing
that struck us about the man was his complete assurance, and secondly his
pronounced Jewish cast of features. With an ulster and a few tall hats on
his head he would have made a perfect "old clo'" man. An oldish man
this, with grizzled beard brought to a point, and in the end a tuft of a
rat's tall was twisted, others similarly adorning the ends of his
moustache. His hair was done in a round lump at the back, held in place
by a sort of net of string. His hair in front had been either pulled out
or shaved off, giving him a very fine forehead. His nose and lips were
Jewish to a degree. His womenfolk showed no such characteristics, most
of them being remarkably plain, with the exception of one pretty little
gin, who, poor thing, was suffering from a similar disease to the man we
saw at Family Well.
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