Tasmanians

TASMANIANS. The Tasmanians, who are now extinct, were of medium height, had black to dark brown skins ; woolly hair; heavy brows; longish, oval or pentagonal, flattish and small sized (cranial content) heads; short broad noses and large teeth.

Culture.

They were food-gatherers, expert hunters and track ers of game, nomads, moving in small groups of the family type, with very little government but recognising the areas belonging to other groups as reserved and not to be interfered with except on risk of war. Hereditary or permanent chiefs do not seem to have been found. No marriage ceremony is recorded and there seems ground for holding that they were polygynous. They are typical representatives of the Early Stone and Wood Age. The stone implements are very crude in form and finish (akin to Mousterian products) and were made of phthanite, a fine grained sandstone. Fire was made with the groove and saw or with the drill. Stones with black and red bands were used for tallies or mnemonics for absent friends. All have been lost and their ex act significance is not quite clear. They made rough drawings on bark, with charcoal, ornamented themselves, using red ochre for the hair and wore shell necklaces, fillets of gay flowers, or fes toons of showy berries. Huts and wind-breaks were used as

shelters. Skins were thrown over the back against rain but otherwise they were naked. Scarification was practised and they rubbed themselves with powdered charcoal and red ochre. They greased their bodies against rain. They made rafts generally of the bark of some species of Eucalyptus, which was rolled up into cigar shaped bundles, three going to a raft, broad in the middle and tapering to a point at each end. These were good fair weather craft but dangerous in storms. They used their spears for fishing but had neither bow and arrow nor boomerang.

Language.--There were five dialects, classified on a geograph ical basis in two main groups as eastern and western. Enough re mains to show that they were all related and were dialectical variations from a common archetype. The language is said to have been musical and soft, vowels being peculiarly full and round. They had no d, f, v, s, or z. Words began generally with a consonant, cr, pr and tr being common, other combinations being rare. Words end with a vowel as a rule. Distinct forms were used for singular and for plural.