ese natives are fond of social enjoyment. Their evenings are passed
away round the fires, with songs generally of a low, plaintive, and not
unpleasing character, time being kept by beating one bone or stick upon
another. They have besides what may be called a musical instrument--the
ibero--a piece of bamboo, three feet in length, which, by blowing into
it, is made to produce an interrupted, drumming, monotonous noise. In
their dances I observed nothing peculiar.

LAWS OF PUNISHMENT AND REVENGE.

In illustration of their laws relative to punishments, and to show their
identity with those of other Australian tribes, I may mention a
circumstance which came under my own knowledge. One night about ten
o'clock, hearing an uproar at a native encampment near the hospital, I
ran out and found that a young man, named Munjerrijo, having excited the
jealousy of another, of the name of Yungun, on account of some improper
conduct towards the wife of the latter, had been severely wounded, his
arm being broken with a club, and his head laid open with an iron-headed
fishing spear. As the punishment was considered too severe for the
offence, it was finally determined, that, upon Munjerrijo's recovery, the
two natives who had wounded him should offer their heads to him to be
struck with a club, the usual way, it would appear, of settling such
matters.

Like the other Australian tribes, those of Port Essington are frequently
at feud with their neighbours, and quarrels sometimes last for years, or,
if settled, are apt to break out afresh. In these cases the lex talionis
is the only recognised one. I may give an example.

ACCOUNT OF NEINMAL, AN ABORIGINAL OF PORT ESSINGTON.

A Monobar native (inhabitant of the country to the westward of the
isthmus) was shot by a marine in the execution of his duty, for
attempting to escape while in custody, charged with robbery. When his
tribe heard of it, as they could not lay their hands upon a white man,
they enticed into their territory a Bijenelumbo man, called Neinmal, who
was a friend of the whites, having lived with them for years, and on that
account he was selected as a victim and killed. When the news of
Neinmal's death reached the settlement, some other Bijenelumbo people
took revenge by killing a Monobar native within a few hundred yards of
the houses. Thus the matter rests at present, but more deaths will
probably follow before the feud is ended. Both these murders were
committed under ci