ariable phrase, "_narracoopa_"--very
good.

They felt the incumbrance of clothing, when exhibiting their feats: the
permission to strip was embraced with great gladness. They gradually
wrought themselves into the most extravagant excitement: their pleasure
was in activity.

_Language._--Their language varied: the four principal tribes had
different dialects. When they met at Flinders', communication was
difficult, yet their songs were the same. The language has never been
reduced to rules, though vocabularies have been collected by Jorgenson,
and others. The Rev. Mr. Dove furnished some additional information; but
though the specimens establish an affinity in these dialects, the
results are otherwise unimportant. The vowels greatly predominate: the
_r_ is sounded rough, and lingering. The words are frequently liquid and
melodious. At Flinders' Island, the language was a mixture of several;
broken English, New Holland, and Tasmanian words formed the currency of
the island. In English, they dropped the _d_ and _s_; thus sugar is
tugar, and doctor is togata. As with other barbarians, who have enjoyed
the benefit of our instructions, the epithets of licentiousness and
insult were most current, and most aptly applied. Strangers to abstract
ideas, their words expressed the most common objects, sensations, and
wants. Their songs, which reminded Labillardiere of the music of the
Arabs of Asia Minor, were exceedingly soft and plaintive; their voices
not wanting in melody. They repeated the same note in soft and liquid
syllables; descended to the second bar, and finished with a third above
the key note. They sometimes varied, by suddenly running into the
octave. Their strains were considered, by a Scotchman, a close
resemblance to the Highland bagpipe. The stanzas they repeated again and
again: none have been translated, for which, it is said, they are
unfit.[33]

_Intellect._--Their intellectual character is low; yet not so inferior
as often described. They appeared stupid, when addressed on subjects
which had no relation to their mode of life; but they were quick and
cunning within their own sphere. A country not producing any animal
capable of service; where nothing is sharper than stone; destitute of
grain, and of fruits of any value, could be inhabited only by a
wandering race. Their locomotion sharpened their powers of observation,
without much increasing their ideas. In such circumstances, mind may
degenerate, but it c