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[Page 35]
The scarcity of food, must at times reduce the Natives to the greatest extremities, several of those seen had live lizards which they signified were to eat, and the sods in every swampy spot were turned up probably in search of worms, as no root was to be found there that would serve for food.
The language of the people is totally dissimilar from that of the Natives of Port Jackson, but the same cast of features bespeaks the same origin; their arms, their ornaments and their dances are alike, and they seem to differ only in language, and in the ceremony of knocking out the front tooth of every male, those of Port Philip having their jaws perfect. We had a sufficient proof of their burying their dead, by finding a human Skeleton 3 feet under ground, when digging for water; its decayed state evincing its having bee placed there several years back.