Aborigines of Van Diemen's Land, 1830-1840 - Page 273
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[Page 273]
I have recently been favored by a respectable friend and reverend, who holds a situation at Flinders Island, with some interesting notes. He informs me that the Oyster Bay Tribe fasten round the neck the Claw of the Eagle.
The Hobart Town Tribe wear some other mark of distinction. The Aborigines feel remarkably offended if allusion is made to their dead. They possess great notions of barter. # They often take a week's ration with them, and roam about the island; hunting the Wallaby and Kangaroo. They occasionally have serious feuds. They say God is good "we like to go to church, but not too much it makes us sleepy;" hence they generally only go once on the sunday. Mr Dove has one or two beautifully formed canoes made by one of them Aborigines, which he highly prizes; they are remarkably well formed, and high in the extremities - prow and stern.
[margin note: # both men & women are fond of smoking.]
When one of the Aborigines, named