Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land, 1830-1840 - Page 258
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[Page 258]
their arms in the shape of stripes. These incisions were made by a piece of flint or an Oyster shell. I can also assign another reason for certain incisions being having been mistaken for tatooing. I have in my narrative observed on the facility with which the Aborigines cured wounds and the bite of Dogs. I mentioned the case of Tupelanta who had his arm entangles in a man trap. When the Chief of Brune Island was with the "Conciliatory mission" on the northern side of the island one of his thighs swelled to a great degree, and he suffered severe pains. His wife "Truganana" made six incisions in the thigh, up and down and it had the affect of removing the disease in nine days, a great deal of slough issuing and offered instant relief. He was afterwards one of the stoutest and healthiest man attached to the mission. I am not skilled in surgery, but I should imagine that incisions so infected answer all the purposes of blistering and cupping. Many who subsequently saw him thought that the incisions made on his thigh was were a species of tatooing.
We are also informed that the females in the absence of the Sealers on the is with whom they had connected themselves in on the islands in straits had have a kind of song which they chant to their imaginary deity, of whom, however, they have a very indistinct notion, and who, they say presides