During The Forenoon We Were Visited By A Party Of Natives, Who Came To Get Water At The Hole In The Sand.

They were not much alarmed, and soon became very friendly, remaining near us all night; from them I learned

That there was no water inland, and none along the coast for two days' journey, after which we should come to plenty, at a place called by them "Beelimah Gaip-pe;." Their language was nearly the same as that of Port Lincoln, intermixed with a few words in use at King George's Sound, and I now regretted greatly that I had not the Western Australian native with me.

I found a most singular custom prevailing among the natives of this part of the country, which I had never found to exist anywhere else (except at Port Lincoln), and the origin of which it would be most difficult to account for. In various parts of Australia some of the tribes practise the rite of circumcision, whilst others do not; but in the Port Lincoln peninsula, and along the coast to the westward, the natives not only are circumcised, but have in addition another most extraordinary ceremonial. [Note 24: Finditus usque ad urethram a parte infera penis.] Among the party of natives at the camp I examined many, and all had been operated upon. The ceremony with them seemed to have taken place between the ages of twelve and fourteen years, for several of the boys of that age had recently undergone the operation, the wounds being still fresh and inflamed. This extraordinary and inexplicable custom must have a great tendency to prevent the rapid increase of the population; and its adoption may perhaps be a wise ordination of Providence, for that purpose, in a country of so desert and arid a character as that which these people occupy.

November 10. - Getting the party away about five o'clock this morning, I persuaded one of the natives, named "Wilguldy," an intelligent cheerful old man, to accompany us as a guide, and as an inducement, had him mounted on a horse, to the great admiration and envy of his fellows, all of whom followed us on foot, keeping up in a line with the dray through the scrub, and procuring their food as they went along, which consisted of snakes, lizards, guanas, bandicoots, rats, wallabies, etc. etc. and it was surprising to see the apparent ease with which, in merely walking across the country, they each procured an abundant supply for the day.

In one place in the scrub we came to a large circular mound of sand, about two feet high, and several yards in circumference; this they immediately began to explore, carefully throwing away the sand with their hands from the centre, until they had worked down to a deep narrow hole, round the sides of which, and embedded in the sand, were four fine large eggs of a delicate pink colour, and fully the size of a goose egg. I had often seen these hills before, but did not know that they were nests, and that they contained so valuable a prize to a traveller in the desert.

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