scurity of the background, while the
singers and beaters of time are invisible, have a highly theatrical
effect. Each dance appears most tastefully progressive; the movement
being first slow, and introduced by two persons, displaying graceful
motions, both of arms and legs; others, one by one, join in, each
gradually warming into the truly savage attitude of the "_corrobory_"
jump; the legs then stride to the utmost, the head is turned over one
shoulder, the eyes glare, and are fixed with savage energy all in one
direction; the arms also are raised, and inclined towards the head, the
hands usually grasping some warlike weapons. The jump now keeps time
with each beat; the dancers at every movement taking six inches to one
side, all being in a connected line, led by the first, which line,
however, is sometimes _doubled_ or _tripled_, according to numbers; and
thus great effect is added; for when the front line jumps to the left,
the second jumps to the right; the third to the left again, and so on,
until the action gains due intensity, when all suddenly stop at the same
moment. The excitement which this dance produces in the savage is very
remarkable. However listless the individual may be, lying perhaps, as
usual, half asleep, set him to this, and he is fired with sudden energy,
every nerve is strung to such a degree, that he is hardly to be known as
the same person, while the _corrobory_ continues.

_Peerat and his Wives._--A garden belonging to a soldier at King
George's Sound had been robbed by the natives of nearly a hundred weight
of potatoes. This was the first act of theft that had been committed
during the five months of Governor Grey's residence there, although
there had often been as many as two hundred natives in the settlement,
who had no means of subsistence beyond the natural productions of the
country, and what little they derived from being occasionally employed
by the colonists. And even in this theft of the potatoes, they had
purposely left the large roots, and had taken away only the smaller
ones, in the hope that by so doing they would lessen the crime. However,
the governor resolved to act promptly and vigorously upon this first
offence, and to avoid the common fault of Europeans, in confounding the
guilty and the innocent together. By the help of an intelligent native,
the tracks of three persons were found in the garden that had been
robbed, and the footsteps were pronounced to be those of Peerat's