.

SONGS AND POETRY.
GENERAL PRACTICE OF SINGING.

TRADITIONAL SONGS.
Like all other savage races the natives of Western Australia are very fond of singing and dancing: to a sulky old native his song is what a quid of tobacco is to a sailor; is he angry, he sings; is he glad, he sings; is he hungry, he sings; if he is full, provided he is not so full as to be in a state of stupor, he sings more lustily than ever; and it is the peculiar character of their songs which renders them under all circumstances so solacing to them.

The songs are short, containing generally only one or two ideas, and are constantly repeated over and over again in a manner doubtless grating to the untutored ear of a European, but to one skilled in Australian music lulling and harmonious in the extreme, and producing much the same effect as the singing of a nurse does upon a child.
SONG OF AN OLD MAN IN WRATH.

SCENE PRODUCED BY IT.
Nothing can give a better idea of the character of these people than their songs.