place themselves in a row in front, while the men with their
spears stand in a row behind them. They then all commence their
movements, but without intermingling, the males and females
dancing by themselves. The women have occasionally another mode
of dancing, by joining the hands together over the head, closing
the feet, and bringing the knees into contact. The legs are then
thrown outward from the knee, while the feet and hands are kept
in their original position, and, being drawn quickly in again, a
sharp sound is produced by the collision. This is also practised
alone by young girls or by several together for their own
amusement. It is adopted also when a single woman is placed in
front of a row of male dancers to excite their passions." (E.J.
Eyre, _Journals of Expeditions into Central Australia_, vol. ii,
p. 235.)

A charming Australian folk-tale concerning two sisters with
wings, who disliked men, and their wooing by a man, clearly
indicates, even among the Australians (whose love-making is
commonly supposed to be somewhat brutal in character), the
consciousness that it is by his beauty, charm, and skill in
courtship that a man wins a woman. Unahanach, the lover, stole
unperceived to the river where the girls were bathing and at last
showed himself carelessly sitting on a high tree. The girls were
startled, but thought it would be safe to amuse themselves by
looking at the intruder. "Young and with the most active figure,
yet of a strength that defied the strongest emu, and even enabled
him to resist an 'old man' kangaroo, he had no equal in the
chase, and conscious power gave a dignity to his expression that
at one glance calmed the fears of the two girls. His large
brilliant eyes, shaded by a deep fringe of soft black eyelashes,