ly still and silent, and it was
understood that this ceremony gave them power over the dog, and endowed
them with whatever good qualities that animal might possess.

[38] Speaking of a tribe which he found upon the banks of the Darling,
Mitchell says, "The men retained all their front teeth, and had no
scarifications on their bodies, two most unfashionable peculiarities
among the aborigines." (MITCHELL'S _Three Expeditions_, vol. i. p. 261.)
The same intelligent traveller accounts for the custom of knocking out
the teeth, by supposing it a typical sacrifice, probably derived from
early sacrificial rites. The cutting off the last joint of the little
finger of females, (he adds,) seems a custom of the same kind. It is a
curious observation, that the more ferocious among the natives on the
Darling were those tribes that had _not_ lost their front teeth.--Vol.
ii. p. 345, and vol. i. p. 304.

[39] This was not the fact, however, for Lieut. Collins found them in
a different place, when he went to the spot early in the next morning.

The next part that was performed, was the offering of a sham kangaroo,
made of grass, to the fifteen lads, who were still seated as before. One
man brought the kangaroo, and a second carried some brushwood, besides
having one or two flowering shrubs stuck through his nose, and both
seemed to stagger under the weight of their burdens. Stalking and
limping, they at last reached the feet of the youthful hunters, and
placed before them the prize of the chase, after which they went away,
as though entirely wearied out. By this rite was given the power of
killing the kangaroo, and the brushwood, most likely, was meant to
represent its common haunt. In about an hour's space, the chief actors
returned from a valley to which they had retired, bringing with them
long tails of grass, which were fitted to the girdle. By the help of
this addition, they imitated a herd of kangaroos, one man beating time
to them with a club on a shield, and two others, armed, followed them
and affected to steal unnoticed upon them to spear them. As soon as
these pretended kangaroos had passed the objects of their visit, they
instantly got rid of their artificial tails, each man caught up a lad,
and, placing him upon his shoulders, carried him off in triumph to the
last scene of this strange exhibition.

After walking a short distance, the men put down their burdens, placing
them in a cluster, each b