They Are Not As Strong As Lines Of Equal Size
Formed Of Hemp.
The fish-hooks are chopped with a stone out of a particular
shell, and afterwards rubbed until they become smooth.
They are
very much curved, and not barbed. Considering the quickness with which
they are finished, the excellence of the work, if it be inspected,
is admirable. In all these manufactures the sole of the foot is used
both by men and women as a work-board. They chop a piece of wood,
or aught else upon it, even with an iron tool, without hurting themselves.
It is indeed nearly as hard as the hoof of an ox.
Their method of procuring fire is this. They take a reed and shave one side
of the surface flat. In this they make a small incision to reach the pith,
and introducing a stick, purposely blunted at the end, into it, turn it round
between the hands (as chocolate is milled) as swiftly as possible,
until flame be produced. As this operation is not only laborious,
but the effect tedious, they frequently relieve each other at the exercise.
And to avoid being often reduced to the necessity of putting it in practice,
they always, if possible, carry a lighted stick with them, whether
in their canoes or moving from place to place on land.
Their treatment of wounds must not be omitted. A doctor is, with them,
a person of importance and esteem, but his province seems rather to charm away
occult diseases than to act the surgeon's part, which, as a subordinate
science, is exercised indiscriminately. Their excellent habit of body*,
the effect of drinking water only, speedily heals wounds without an exterior
application which with us would take weeks or months to close.
They are, nevertheless, sadly tormented by a cutaneous eruption,
but we never found it contagious. After receiving a contusion,
if the part swell they fasten a ligature very tightly above it, so as to stop
all circulation. Whether to this application, or to their undebauched habit,
it be attributable, I know not, but it is certain that a disabled limb
among them is rarely seen, although violent inflammations from bruises,
which in us would bring on a gangrene, daily happen. If they get burned,
either from rolling into the fire when asleep, or from the flame catching
the grass on which they lie (both of which are common accidents)
they cover the part with a thin paste of kneaded clay, which excludes the air
and adheres to the wound until it be cured, and the eschar falls off.
[*Their native hardiness of constitution is great. I saw a woman on the day
she was brought to bed, carry her new-born infant from Botany Bay
to Port Jackson, a distance of six miles, and afterwards light a fire
and dress fish.]
Their form of government, and the detail of domestic life, yet remain untold.
The former cannot occupy much space. Without distinctions of rank,
except those which youth and vigour confer, theirs is strictly a system
of 'equality' attended with only one inconvenience - the strong triumph
over the weak.
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