The colour of the Kupé was inclining to bronze; the ends of the scales being black, gave to the fish a checkered appearance. Among the native inhabitants of the Yas district was a pair of originals: the man was called Daraga, and his lady the “beautiful Kitty of Yas.” Neither of them had pretensions to beauty. The lady had ornamented her delicate form (for all the ladies are fond of adornments) with two opossum tails, pendent in a graceful manner from her greasy locks; pieces of tobacco-pipe, mingled with coloured beads, adorned her neck; an old, dirty, opossum-skin cloak was thrown over the shoulders; a bundle of indescribable rags around the waist; and a netbul or culy hanging behind, (filled with a collection of “small deer,” and other eatables, that would baffle all attempts at description,) completed the toilette of this angelic creature. Of her features I shall only say, they were not such as painters represent those of Venus: her mouth, for instance, had a striking resemblance to the gaping entrance of a Wombat’s burrow. The husband also had decorated the locks of his cranium with opossum tails, with the addition of grease and red ochre; a tuft of beard ornamented his chin; and the colour of his hide was barely discernible, from the layers of mud and charcoal covering it: he wore a “spritsail yard” through his “apology for a nose;” the opossum-skin cloak covered his shoulders; and the “cumeel,” or belt of opossum-skin, girded the loins: the pipe was his constant companion, as the love of tobacco among those who have intercourse with Europeans, is unbounded, and no more acceptable present can be made them. At meal times it was curious to observe the conduct of this interesting couple and the kangaroo dogs: it was evident that no good feeling subsisted betwixt the parties: the dogs regarded the former with an expression of anger, and the opposite party looked both sulkily and anxiously at the canine species;—the dogs appeared instinctively to fear that the human creatures would devour every morsel of the food, and that they should be minus their share; whilst the latter seemed to know, either by instinct or practical experience, that large dogs bite tolerably hard when angry. Black and white cockatoos had lately become very numerous about this part of the country: the former appeared to have been attracted by some trees that had been felled when clearing a spot of land for cultivation—as these birds visit the dead or fallen trees to procure the larvæ of insects that breed in them. I have seen, more than once, small trees lying prostrate, occasioned by the powerful bills of the large black cockatoos, who, observing on the trunk, externally, indications of a larva being within, have diligently laboured to extract it; and should the object of their search be situated (as often occurs) far in, before they reach it, the trunk is so much cut through, that the slightest puff’ of wind lays it prostrate.[68]