# The Aborigines of Victoria/Volume 1/Chapter 11

Ornamentation.
The modes of ornamenting the shields, clubs, and other weapons of the Aboriginal natives of Victoria are similar to those of the people who fabricated the urns of baked or burnt clay found in tumuli in England and Scotland. They are restricted to forms few and simple, but, whether separate or in combination, not without some pleasing effects. Of the hundreds of old weapons that I have examined—weapons made before the natives had gathered any hints from Europeans—I find that the lines carved on them were in the form of the chevron, herring-bone, or saltier. In some, the round or egg-shaped figure was used as a border. If the reader will refer to the figures of the shields and clubs in this work, he will see every variety of these styles; and in not a few broad bands at right-angles to the longer axis of the shield, or in the form of a cross with two feet (saltier).
Similar figures are found impressed on an urn recovered from the stone cists of Lesmurdie, in Banffshire; and on another of well-baked material and of unusual thinness which was "discovered under a tumulus at Memsie, Aberdeenshire. Beside the latter lay a bronze leaf-shaped sword, broken in two."
In the Memsie urn, the round dots or rings are arranged in a band dividing one set of herring-bone lines from others above and below it.
It seems that the savage, in all parts of the world, has, in his first attempts at ornamentation, used the lines above described for decorating his weapons and utensils. We may suppose that he depicted, first, straight lines; secondly, lines forming the herring-bone and the chevron; and, lastly, the saltier, which would arise naturally out of the combinations of those figures. This is borne out by a careful examination of the wooden shields.
Some of the spear-shields are ornamented with dots and bands only; and the bands are always hollowed out. Curved lines are rarely seen. Any attempt to represent a curve in all the specimens I have examined has been a failure. The folds of the snake and the neck of the swan are shown as angles—acute or obtuse—not as curves.
​On a few of the weapons appear rude figures of men and four-footed animals. One figure of a man shown by lines on a club is in the dress and attitude of a native dancing in a corrobboree.
The carvings are confined to their weapons of wood. Not one of the bone implements in my possession has a single line engraven on it.
There are peculiarities in the arrangement of the lines on the ornamented shields of the West Australian natives which suggest that some meaning—understood only by the warriors themselves—is conveyed by such representations. The natives of Victoria often used forms the meaning of which is discoverable now. A Lyl-lil (figured in this work) represents a lagoon, and probably an anabranch of the Broken River, and the space enclosed by the lines shows the country which the tribe of the owner of the weapon occupied. In like manner the natives of the Upper Darling represented on their shields figures in imitation of the totems of their tribes. One in my possession has engraven on it the figure of an iguana.
Among the common forms on their shields and other weapons are the following.—(Fig. 33.)—
* FIG. 33.
Designs after the following pattern (Fig. 34) are not often seen. On the flat or rounded surfaces of their weapons they not infrequently scored lines in detached parallelograms.—(Fig. 35.) The remaining surface of the weapon, when this style was used, was left smooth, or was polished, so as to give greater prominence to the figures.
The shields of the natives of Queensland are ornamented with very fine lines in rather irregular patterns, and with circular dots.—(Fig. 36.) The inner side of the shield is also carved, and on one in my collection there appears what is probably a figure of the totem of the tribe. It is strange that it should be shown on the inside of the shield.
| FIG. 34. | FIG. 35. | FIG. 36. |
Their boomerangs are made of a hard, nearly black, wood, resembling ebony, or of a wood resembling the raspberry-jam wood of West Australia, and,unlike those of any other part of Australia which I have seen, are decorated. ​The figures cut on them are in all the specimens in my possession of the following patterns.—(Fig. 37.) Other missiles are marked thus.—(Fig. 38.) All these forms have a meaning intelligible to the blacks of that part of the continent.
| FIG. 37. | FIG. 38. |
One sees in the simple forms used by the natives of Australia the rudiments of the arts which gave splendour to the palaces of ancient Chaldæa. In the richest monuments of the luxurious races that dwelt on the lands watered by the Euphrates and the Tigris the same lines and combinations of lines as those here figured are used and repeated. On some of the columns there are patterns which are line for line the same as those seen on the shields made by the natives of the Yarra. From a race that used the like style of ornamentation the Saxon derived the zigzag moulding of his arch—and Gothic architecture, perhaps, the hint of the quatre-foil. The lines that ornament the fowling-piece and the pistol of modern manufacture in Europe are but repetitions of the designs which are seen on the Australian Mulga and the Leon-ile.
The artist will view with interest these first attempts at ornamentation. That such forms have been in use in all ages, and are still universally adopted, show that artistic invention has its limits, and is as surely subject to law as are the physical forces which we may investigate, and in some sense control, but cannot change.
A common instinct prevails whenever the mind is left to its own resources, and is unaided by experience and untaught by example. A very young child in Europe and a full-grown native of Australia will make a diagram and not a picture in any attempt to represent the figure of a man or an animal or a plant. The coarser pictures of the Chinese and the Japanese are but highly-colored diagrams.
* FIG. 39.
The rude drawings of men made by European children are all alike. For the head there is a circle, with dots where the eyes, nose, and mouth should appear; the body is shown by another circle or an oval; and the arms and fingers and legs are represented by lines.
The Australian native shows the human figure somewhat differently. He sketches it usually thus.—(Fig. 39.) Throughout the continent this form is understood. In like manner the natives have conventional forms for trees, lakes, and streams; and in transmitting information to friends in remote tribes they use the conventional forms, but in many cases modified, and in some cases so simplified as to be in reality rather symbols than diagrams or pictures.
​The natives of the Murray and the Darling, and those in other parts adjacent, carved on the trees near the tombs of deceased warriors strange figures having meanings no doubt intelligible to all the tribes in the vast area watered by these rivers.
That they possessed the power of conveying ideas by a sort of picture-writing is beyond doubt: picture-writing indeed was common long before Europeans made encroachments in any part of the island-continent. The characters employed, and the meaning of some of them, are referred to in another part of this work. The native not only was able to convey ideas in this manner, but occasionally made pictures, intelligible to all, representing events in his life.
Some years ago, the Honorable Theo. J. Sumner sent me a piece of bark on which were depicted various scenes in the life of an Aboriginal. It was obtained near Lake Tyrrell, from a hut of bark constructed by a native. He had ornamented the sheets of bark composing his hut very elaborately, and one piece was brought to Melbourne by Mr. Stanbridge. The native artist was not a wild black. He had observed the customs of the whites; but he had received no instruction from them, except such as an intelligent man would derive from looking at their works. He cannot be strictly regarded as an uneducated native. The landscapes, if they can be so called, and the figures shown in Fig. 40, are faithfully reduced from the original sheet of bark on which they were drawn, and which is now in my possession. The bark was smoked on the inside by placing it over a fire of twigs and leaves until the surface was blackened but not charred, and the artist drew the figures with the nail of his thumb.
FIG.40.
Facsimile of a Drawing on a Sheet of Bark.
To face page 286, vol. I.
canoe.
Lower down, towards the right, is a crateriform lake, exactly resembling those of the Western district of Victoria. It is fringed with small trees (true to nature), and the fences of the squatter are depicted. A stream having a connection with the lake (also true to nature) is well drawn. In the lower part of this picture are shown a crateriform lake, with an outlet or a feeder and a squatter's house. The lake on the upper side is fringed with small trees, and an old dead tree on the right is rigidly true in execution. The way in which the motion of water is conveyed is excellent; it is nearly at rest in the lake, and it is running in the stream. This is worthy of study. The squatter's house is seemingly built of stone (basalt), and the chimney of brick. At the back of the house, and at a distance from it, some of the natives are dancing, and others are apparently engaged in a mystic ceremony. The figures in motion, those at rest, the women who beat the opossum skins, the weapons held in the hands of the dancers or laid aside, are all clearly shown.
This picture, the work of a native who had never received instruction, far surpasses any work of art that could be produced by even an educated European who was not a landscape painter. It is full of life and action. The unaffected plainness of the work, the simplicity of it, and the skill and knowledge evinced, are sufficient to compel admiration. And the poor materials! A piece of smoked bark, carved and indented with the nail of the thumb or a piece of bone!
* FIG. 41.
On the death of Bungeleen (an Aboriginal native who was tolerably well educated, and was for some time under the care of the late Mr. Wm. Thomas, the Protector of Aborigines), one of the men of the Yarra tribe was requested to make a suitable design for a tombstone to be placed over his grave; and he furnished accordingly the following picture. It is carved in wood.—(Fig. 41.) The artist is now dead; and it is impossible to give an explanation of the picture. Mr. John Green says that the Aborigines of the Yarra do not know what meaning he attached to the several figures; but they suppose that the men represented in the upper part of the drawing are friends who have been appointed to investigate the cause of the death of Bungeleen; the figures of the birds and animals (emus, lizard, wombat (?), and kangaroos) indicate that he did not die for lack of food; and the strange—somewhat obscure—forms below the hollow band are those of Mooroops, or spirits who have caused the death of the Aboriginal by their wicked enchantments. The carving is excellent; and the engraving accurately represents the figures.
The natives, as already stated, frequently carved figures of some kind on the trees growing near the graves of deceased warriors. Oxley gives a drawing, from which it appears that a portion of the bark was first removed from the trees and that the designs were cut in the wood. These would last for a long period.
They also ornamented the places of burial by cutting figures in the turf; and when the priests exercised some of their rites, spaces were cleared, and designs made by removing the grass and cutting into the soil.
* FIG. 42.
The inner sides of the opossum rugs used by the natives were usually ornamented. They inscribed lines on the skins, and darkened them with powdered charcoal and fat, or with other colors. The figures were the same as those on their weapons, namely, the herring-bone, chevron, and saltier, with representations of animals in outline. In many examples a pattern was chosen and fairly worked out. When an animal was figured, it was common, as in the drawings I have given, to fill in the space around it with lines —(Fig- 42). This style of ornamentation is effective. When a figure of some bird or beast is carved in wood—as on shields or throwing-sticks—it is, in some specimens, in relief, the surrounding lines being cut on a somewhat lower plane; but most often it is cut out to the depth of the eighth of an inch, the surrounding lines ​being raised. Both methods are striking, and when colors are used, the effects are far from unpleasing.
Attention has been given from time to time to the figures and paintings found in caves in Australia. As far as I am aware, no paintings have been discovered in caves in Victoria, though in one or two there have been detected evidences of such caves having been frequented by the Aborigines, not perhaps because of the shelter which they afforded, but in order to enable the priests to perform some rites, or to present, for the purpose of increasing their influence amongst the natives, some tricks or jugglery. One cave in Victoria, which I have often visited, is said to have been the abode of Pundjil. In Western Australia there are numerous caverns in the sandstone rocks, and Capt. (now Sir George) Grey, the explorer, has given a very interesting account of the paintings which he saw in them. I have carefully examined all the figures and descriptions of the cave-pictures given in Grey's volumes, and, with one doubtful exception, they appear to me to be the work of natives, unassisted by any knowledge gained by intercourse with persons of a different race. Moreover, I believe them to be modern, and similar to the drawings that are now made in caves by the natives of North-Western, Northern, and North-Eastern Australia.
These figures have been compared with those of the Hindoos and Egyptians, and an attempt has been made, as far as I am able to understand the argument, to show that the natives of Australia have derived their ideas of such forms from the representations of the gods of the ancients. If there be any resemblance, I can find none. It is much more reasonable to suppose that the Hindoos and Egyptians used forms derived from the representations of the Aboriginal peoples who once roamed over the sites of their splendid cities than that the savages now living borrowed from them.
The figures in Capt. Grey's work resemble, in many respects, those usually drawn by the natives of Victoria and other parts, and the colors are those employed by them. The first figure given in Capt. Grey's work is that of a face and part of the body of a man. The eyes and nose are shown, but not the mouth. The head is surrounded with bright-red rays. The arms are neatly ​drawn, and the thumb and fingers are delineated. On the body are markings of this kind.—(Fig. 43.) The face is painted white, and the eyes black, with encircling red and yellow lines.
* FIG. 43.
Figure No. 2 is thus described:—"Upon the rock which formed the left-hand wall of this cave, and which partly faced you on entering, was a very singular painting, vividly colored, representing four heads joined together. From the mild expression of the countenances, I imagined them to represent females, and they appeared to be drawn in such a manner, and in such a position, as to look up at the principal figure which I have before described (No. 1); each had a very remarkable head-dress, colored with a deep bright blue, and one had a necklace on. Both of the lower figures had a sort of dress, painted with red in the same manner as that of the principal figure, and one of them had a band round her waist. Each of the four faces was marked by a totally different expression of countenance, and although none of them had mouths, two, I thought, were otherwise rather good-looking. The whole painting was executed on a white ground."
Figure No. 3—an ellipse—painted a bright-yellow, and dotted over with red lines and spots, and having across it two transverse lines of blue, encloses a drawing of a kangaroo. The kangaroo is well sketched, and is exactly such a figure as an Aboriginal native would make. The ellipse seems to me to be intended for the representation of a spear-shield, but the black spots are not placed exactly where the handle of the weapon is usually inserted.
Another drawing. No. 4—that of a native carrying a kangaroo—presents many of the peculiarities that belong to native art.
A colored picture of a man at page 214 is also—as far as I am able to judge—the work of a native. It is thus described by Capt. Grey:—"The principal painting in it [the cave] was the figure of a man, ten feet six inches in length, clothed from the chin downwards in a red garment, which reached to the wrists and ankles; beyond this red dress the feet and hands protruded, and were badly executed. The face and head of the figure were enveloped in a ​succession of circular bandages, or rollers, or what appeared to be painted to represent such. These were colored red, yellow, and white; and the eyes were the only features represented on the face. Upon the highest bandage or roller, a series of lines were painted in red; but although so regularly done as to indicate that they have some meaning, it was impossible to tell whether they were intended to depict written characters or some ornament for the head." At the right hand of the figure there are shown in the drawing, in three perpendicular lines, a number of circles—a kind of ornamentation already described. Capt. Grey seems to have regarded all these figures as the work of the Aboriginal natives.
Fronting one of the caves was seen cut out in sandstone rock the profile of a human face and head. The rock was hard, and Capt. Grey states that to have removed such a large portion of it with no better tools than the stone knife and hatchet, such as the Australians use, must have entailed great labor. "The head," he says, "was two feet in length, and sixteen inches in breadth in the broadest part; the depth of the profile increased gradually from the edges, where it was nothing, to the centre, where it was an inch and a half; the ear was rather badly placed, but otherwise the whole of the work was good, and far superior to what a savage race could be supposed capable of executing."
The head shown in the drawing at page 206 resembles that of a European; and, if it was the work of an Aboriginal, is a proof that the artistic skill of this people has been greatly underrated.
In one of the caves Capt. Grey found imprinted on the sides the stamp of a hand and arm. The outline of the hand and arm was painted black, and the rock about it white.
These representations appear to be common in Western Australia and elsewhere. Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, formerly a Geological Surveyor in Western Australia, informs me that the natives make these pictures by blackening the hands and pressing them against the roof. He saw one cave in granite rock where there were many such figures of hands of different sizes, the form of each being cut out very neatly.
Indeed the practice of ornamenting caves, rocks, and trees, and cutting figures on the ground by removing the grass, is characteristic of this people. There are amongst the natives artists who take delight in depicting figures of animals, and scenes in their domestic life, and in making strange devices for their weapons. Their pictures are found in every part of the continent, and also on the islands adjacent to the continent to which they had access. A large number of references could be given illustrative of their love of art, but a few will suffice to induce the reader, perhaps, to regard with a higher interest the first attempts of a savage people to imitate the forms of natural objects, and to pourtray, though usually in no very durable form, incidents in their lives.
​Mr. A. W. Howitt informs me that it was the custom of the natives of Gippsland to strip a sheet of bark, bend it across the middle, and set it up like a tent, and draw figures inside with charcoal, or perhaps red-ochre (nial). He says he saw such an one on the Wonnangatta River, when prospecting, in 1861. He thinks the figures drawn were those of men, emus, &c.
Mr. Hodgkinson saw, at the place prepared for the ceremonies of initiation, at the Macleay River, trees minutely tattooed and carved to such a considerable altitude that he could not help feeling astonished at the labor bestowed on the work.
When exploring in the Cape York Peninsula, Mr. Norman Taylor found in one place a flat wall of rock on which numerous figures were drawn. They were outlined with red-ochre, and filled in with white. A figure of a man was shown in this manner, and was spotted with yellow. And on the hardened-earth flats at the back of a beach were some regularly-drawn turtles cut out in outline, reminding him of the sculptured rocks on the South Head of Sydney, near Bondi, where men, sharks, fish, &c., are carved on the flat sandstone rocks.
Mr. Giles, in his explorations in Central Australia, found, at the camping-places of the natives, paintings of snakes, principally white, and imperfect shapes of hands, scratched, he thinks, by children with bits of charcoal. In the caves he found the same kiuds|kinds of ornamentation as those used by the natives of the Barrier Range and the mountains east of the Darling, namely, representations of the hand, generally colored red or black. These are made by filling the mouth with either charcoal or red-ochre, damping the wall where the mark is to be left, and placing the palm of the hand against it with the fingers stretched out, and then blowing against the back of the hand. When the hand is withdrawn, the space it occupied is clean, while the surrounding wall is black or red. One device represented a snake going into a hole. The hole was actually in the rock, and the snake was painted on the wall, and the spectator was to suppose that its head was just inside the hole. The body of the reptile was curled round and round from the tail, but the breadth was out of all proportion to its length. It was painted with charcoal-ashes, which had been mixed with emu-fat. In another part he saw again the rude figures of snakes, and hands, and devices for shields.
On Depuch Island, one of the Forestier group, lying close to the north-west coast of Australia, Stokes discovered a large number of paintings, consisting of figures of birds, fishes, beetles, crabs, &c. The natives had removed the hard outer coating of the rocks, and thus obtained a smooth surface for their pictures. "Much ability," says Stokes, "is displayed in many of these representations, the subjects of which could be discovered at a glance. The number of specimens was immense, so that the natives must have been in the habit of amusing themselves in this innocent manner for a long period of time. I could not help reflecting, as I examined with interest the various objects represented—the human figures, the animals, the birds, the weapons, the domestic ​incidents, the scenes of savage life—on the curious frame of mind that could induce these uncultivated people to repair, perhaps at stated seasons of the year, to this lonely picture gallery, surrounded by the ocean wave, to admire and add to the productions of their forefathers. . . . . These savages of Australia, as we call them, who have adorned the rocks of Depuch Island with their drawings, have in one thing proved themselves superior to the Egyptian and the Etruscan, whose works have elicited so much admiration, and afforded food to so many speculations—namely, there is not in them to be observed any trace of indecency."
Three of the figures from the plate in Capt. Stokes' work are here shown:—Fig. 44 represents "a native armed with spear and wommera or throwing-stick, probably relating his adventures;" Fig. 45, a kangaroo; and Fig. 46, a crab.
| FIG. 44. | FIG. 45. | FIG. 46. |
Mr. Green informs me that amongst the natives of the Yarra, white, when used for decoration in the corrobboree, is called Trrin-in bigger-min-in; and when used in mourning, Trrin-in mir-rin mir-rin. The native name for red is Trre-barrien, and when used in the corrobboree Trre-barrien mirra-lin. Black is Woorr-karrim, and blue (which probably means dark or dusky) is also named Woor-karrim.
According to Mr. Bunce, red was named Bee-bee-thu-ung, and black Boorooee (meaning "darkness" or "night").
Mr. Bulmer, of Lake Tyers, says that white, red, and black are the only colors used by the natives of the districts he has visited. Blue is not known to them. Since the white man came they have used blue colors, but they obtained them from the whites. The native names of the colors, according to Mr. Bulmer, are as follow:—White, Tarpa-tarpal; red, Noorook or Krook; and black, Nirnba-nirnbal. The last name is applied to anything dark or dusky, so that a blue coat would be called Nirnba-nirnbal gree.
Mr. Bulmer says he has seen both white and red used during periods of mourning, but in the corrobboree white only.
​The colors used by the natives in painting the caves which were visited by Capt. Grey were white, black, red, yellow, and blue. Blue is rarely used by the Aborigines, and in some districts it was unknown prior to the colonization of Australia by the whites. This color was perhaps obtained by mixing black and white.
In ornamenting their rugs they copied from nature. One man told Mr. Bulmer that he got his ideas from the observation of natural objects. He had copied the markings on a piece of wood made by the grub known as Krang; and from the scales of snakes and the markings of lizards he derived new forms. The natives never, in adorning their rugs or weapons, as far as Mr. Bulmer knows, imitate the forms of plants or trees.
A red pigment was obtained by the natives, either from decomposed rocks, where it is found as clay, or by burning some trap-rock or porphyry. Yellow clays and yellow-ochre are not plentiful, and in some districts the pigment is not found at all. White is got in the areas occupied by granite and Palæozoic rocks almost everywhere; but in the large tracts occupied by Tertiary rocks, where white clays are not found near the surface, the natives collected gypsum and selenite, burnt the mineral, and produced a very good pigment. A black color was made from charcoal or from soot. The charcoal or soot was mixed with fat and used as a paint.
The color most commonly used during periods of mourning was white, but, as already stated, both white and red are used by different tribes. Amongst the natives living within the water-shed of the Murray, white alone, Mr. Bulmer thinks, is used. On the eastern side of the Cordillera, however, he has seen the bodies painted with a mixture of red-ochre and fat. The natives take the fat of the deceased, mix it with ochre, and smear their bodies. Both white and red are commonly applied at other times, for purposes of decoration.
​In the corrobboree, when an effect had to be produced at night in front of the fires, they used white. The ribs were indicated by lines of white, and the prominent bones and limbs by daubs and streaks. The aspect of a crowd of natives so painted is hideous.
Mr. Bulmer says that the men generally smeared themselves with red when they wished to make themselves attractive, or smart (Taa-jaan). A young man would cover his hair with red powder, put on a jimbirn, or brow-band, and rub his body with fat and red-ochre. In some parts yellow, as well as red and white, is used for painting the body. Oxley met with men on the Lachlan whose faces were daubed with a red and yellow pigment. In painting their weapons they generally used white and red. The smaller lines on a shield were filled with white, and the broader lines were colored red. Sometimes they painted the herring-bone lines white, and then drew a streak of bright-red paint along the lines formed by the angles, producing a curious and not unpleasing effect.
None of the natives of Australia appear to have practised the art of tattooing. They marked themselves by scars ordinarily in a very rude manner, but occasionally men have been seen whose bodies were covered with cicatrices in regular lines, making a sort of pattern. One remarkable instance of the kind, illustrated by a drawing after a photograph (Fig. 6), is shown in this work. It is a portrait of a native of Queensland.
Mr. Bulmer tells me that, according to his observations, the natives of each tribe scarred themselves after a pattern common to the tribe. The people of one tribe, he says, had a mark of this form—(Fig. 47); another used this—(Fig. 48); another, with lines after this fashion—(Fig. 49). In some tribes the scars were on the back, in others on the arms, or on the chest or abdomen.
| FIG. 47. | FIG. 48. | FIG. 49. |
We may regard these markings as the rudiments of the art practised by the New Zealanders and Polynesians, whose methods of tattooing have been brought to the highest state of perfection. The cicatrices are made by cutting the skin, ​and filling the openings with clay. Both men and women mark themselves in this manner; and in Queensland it is rare to see a native without cicatrices on the shoulder.
On the plains beyond Nundawar, Sir Thomas Mitchell saw a man with scarifications all over his body; and Sir Thomas stated, quite correctly, that these scars or ridges distinguish the Australian natives in all parts of the continent. They have attracted the attention of all voyagers, and are mentioned by Cook. Oxley on his journey saw two natives, both youths, not exceeding twenty years of age, most horribly marked by the skin and flesh being raised in long stripes all over the back and body. Some of the stripes were full three-quarters of an inch deep, and were so close together that scarcely any of the original skin was to be seen between them.
The figures—from photographs—given in this work show how this mode of decoration was practised. Though they are used certainly as tribal marks, the pain and misery attendant on such cuttings are endured more for the purpose of adornment than anything else. A man covered with these ridges of flesh is very proud of his appearance, and would not hide them if he could.
It is not unprofitable to compare the modes of ornamentation in common use in Australia with those of neighbouring races.
* FIG. 50.
The people of New Guinea decorate their weapons and implements much after the fashion of the Fijians, using in all the specimens I have examined black and white, to give effect to their patterns. Some of the lines, however, are unlike any I have seen on Fijian weapons, and greatly resemble the forms that appear on some of the razor-knives from Denmark, of the age of bronze. I have copied these lines from a wooden drum of the New Guinea natives.—(Fig. 50.)
* FIG. 51.
* FIG. 52.
The New Zealanders use the herring-bone, broad bands, and triangular markings, but these are subordinate to the loop-coil, which is prominent in all their decorations. The He Taiaha, or staff of office of a chief (of which I have two very old specimens), is thus carved.—(Fig. 51.) Their canoes and paddles often show these lines.—(Fig. 52.) They imitate the human figure, and grotesque faces and figures appear on their canoes, paddles, and indeed on all things that they carve. Eyes are invariably represented by rings made of the shell of the haliotis.
Many of their works of art are very beautiful. The patterns are intricate, the lines deep, and the style bold. In those that are elaborately decorated the effect is rich, calling to mind very often that of the markings on crustaceans and the shell of the tortoise. The posts of their pahs, their houses, their canoes and weapons, and their boxes, are minutely carved; and though they use but few patterns, these are so adroitly placed as to produce very pleasing contrasts.
The Fijians use such figures as these for their weapons.—(Fig. 53.)
* FIG. 53.
Their cloaks usually exhibit the following lines.— (Fig. 54.)
* FIG. 54.
Their pottery is embellished, and almost in such a manner as to suggest that the devices may have originated in the indentations made on soft clay by ​plaited network. A water vessel in my possession is ornamented thus.—(Fig. 55.)
* FIG. 55.
The people of New Caledonia, it appears, do not decorate their clubs or other weapons. Only one of the specimens in my possession is marked in any way. They are good artists, however, and scratch figures on wood with neatness and skill. A stick in my collection, about five feet in length and two inches in diameter, is entirely covered with drawings, and many of the forms are very cleverly executed.
It is to be regretted that it is not possible to show here all the various forms of ornamentation in use in the islands of the Pacific. Better perhaps than language—better perhaps than the physical aspect or color of the peoples—they would suggest affinities which by research might be established. It is worthy of note that the spears of the North Australians are ornamented nearly in the same manner as the arrows of the South Sea Islanders. They carve on them bands, filled in with longitudinal lines, which alternate with blank spaces, and the lines are colored—in the arrows usually with a black pigment, and in the spears with red or yellow ochre.
* ↑ Wilson: Pre-Historic Annals of Scotland, pp. 426-7, vol. I. Wilson thinks the idea of these patterns was derived from the observation of the indentations originally made by the plaited network on rude sun-dried urns. Our Aborigines knew not the use of clay. The origin of this system of ornamentation must be sought for elsewhere.
* ↑ The encircling lines dividing the pictures in the bark drawing which follows may he regarded as an exception. But it does not represent native archaic art; and the attempts in the same pictures to show the folds of the snake and the curves of the necks of the birds justify and support the statement that, as a rule, the uneducated native cannot describe a curve.
* ↑ "Most of their instruments are ornamented with rude carved work, effected with a piece of broken shell; and on the rocks are frequently to be seen various figures of fish, clubs, swords, animals, and branches of trees, not contemptibly represented."—An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, by Lieut-Col. Collins, 1804, p. 381. Collins states, in another part of his work (p. 377), that, in ornamenting their weapons and instruments, each tribe used some peculiar form by which it was known to what part of the country they belonged.
* ↑ How like are the practices of men throughout the world! "And so the Indian Cadmus, with his paints of diverse colors, depicts on the smooth birch bark such simple figures and symbols as are now to be found engraven on hundreds of rocks throughout the American Continent; and are in constant use by the forest Indian in chronicling his own deeds on his buffalo robe, or recording those of the deceased chief on his grave-post. This is a simple process of picture-writing, translatable with nearly equal facility into the language of every tribe."—Wilson's Pre-Historic Man, vol. II., p. 125. The Bosjesman is also an artist. He makes figures on rocks, and paints the roofs of caves, like the Australians and the North American Indians. He represents figures of men and the forms of beasts. He uses in coloring them red and black, and sometimes white, and his drawings have given rise to speculations as to their origin somewhat similar to the theories propounded respecting the cave-paintings of the natives of the north-western part of the continent. He, like the Australian, understands and appreciates art. He loves pictures. They appeal to his intellect in a manner that only an artist can comprehend.
* ↑ "A boy belonging to a tribe at the Manning River, who had been induced to accompany a friend of mine as far as the Macleay, drew with a piece of chalk human heads and figures, kangaroos, &c., with a firm, well-defined outline, which few English boys of his age could have done better, unless they had had lessons in drawing."—Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay, 1845, by C. Hodgkinson, p. 243. The Tasmanians also made pictures on bark. Bunce describes their drawings.—See Australasiatic Reminiscences, pp. 49, 50.
* ↑ The tomb-board of Wabojeeg, a celebrated war chief, who died on Lake Superior in 1793, resembles that of Bungeleen. It is described in Sir John Lubbock's work on The Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition of Man, 1870, p. 35.
* ↑ Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, by George George Grey, 1841.
* ↑ Remarks on the probable Origin and Antiquity of the Aboriginal Natives of New South Wales, by a Colonial Magistrate, 1846.
* ↑ The Hindoos, it is true, paint their bodies. They paint their arms and their breasts, and sometimes their throats. "Sandal-powder, turmeric, chuna or lime, ashes from a consecrated fire, cow-dung and other holy combustibles, made adhesive by a size of rice-water, or sometimes rubbed on dry, are the ingredients and usages on this occasion. Several lines of white, ashen, or yellow hue are commonly seen drawn across the arms and breasts; and I understand that Yogis and Saniasis, and other pious persons, frequently carry about them a little packet of these holy pigments, with which they mark those who show them respect in repayment of their attentions."—The Hindu Pantheon, by Edward Moor, F.R.S., p. 375. Surely these practices have been derived from those of a more ancient uncivilized race. Civilization struggles vainly against such usages; it may sometimes almost extinguish them, but it is certain it never originates them.
* ↑ Fresh light is thrown on this subject by the discovery of the head-dress (Oogee) worn at corrobborees by the men of the North. As soon as Mr. Pantou sent me the decoration, it occurred to me that this picture in Grey's volume was an attempt to represent it. The head-dress is figured in another part of this work, and the reader may consider it in connection with the drawing in Grey's Volume. It must be borne in mind that everything else figured in the caves where these pictures were seen was undoubtedly the work of the natives; and it is highly improbable that foreigners—intruders—who necessarily would have been daily and hourly in fear of losing their lives—unless they were guests of the natives, or captives—would have taken the trouble to procure the several colors necessary for such decorations as those described. It is suggested that the natives borrowed from India. But no figures in the Hindoo Pantheon resemble the cave-drawings. Around the head of Krishna, rays like those of the sun (not at all like the feathers of the cockatoo) are depicted, and Krishna wears a crown elaborately wrought. And not the head only but the body of Surya is surrounded with rays. If the red lines in the figure copied by Grey were intended to represent rays, and not the feathers of a bird, there is something to be investigated in the history of the natives of Australia that is of absorbing interest. One of my correspondents has suggested that the figures may have been drawn by Portuguese or Spanish sailors, and are sacred emblems: if so, they must have been painted some three centuries ago—but, assuredly, they are not of a character to endure for any very great length of time.
* ↑ The necklace is so drawn as to remind one at once of the necklace of kangaroo teeth figured in another part of this work.
* ↑ Sir George Grey observes that "this figure brings to mind the description of the Prophet Ezekiel:—'Men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity.'—Chap. xxiii., 14, 15."
* ↑ Geographic Travels in Central Australia, 1872-4, by Ernest Giles.
* ↑ Discoveries in Australia, 1837-43, vol. II., pp. 170-3.
* ↑ Mr. Bulmer informs me that the word gree does not mean a coat only, but is used to designate anything a native possesses. A man calls anything he owns gree. He adds that the natives express different shades of color by putting before the word for color the equivalent of our word very: thus very dark or nearly black is Mak-nirnba-nirnbal, Blackness itself, or more properly "the mother of darkness," is Yackan-nirnba-nirnbal. The work Yackan is used to express something extraordinary, as Yackanda-willang, a great rain. One of the towns in the Beechworth district is named Yackandandah.
* ↑ In an official report addressed to the Government of South Australia, and dated 30th June 1874, which I have just received from Mr. E. A. Hamilton, the Sub-Protector of Aborigines in South Australia, it is stated that serious depredations have been committed by Aboriginals known as the Saltwater blacks. These men come down every year from Cooper's Creek and elsewhere to obtain supplies of ochre from the Aroona cave. On returning to their own country, they not unfrequently rob the huts of shepherds. Mr. Buttfield, one of the Sub-Protectors, has suggested that a supply of ochre should be sent to Mount Hope, so that the natives might no longer be obliged to travel a long distance to obtain it.
* ↑ "The next day the women separated from the men and painted themselves all over with white clay, and the men did so with red, at the same time ornamenting themselves with emu feathers, which they tied round their waists. They were in every other way quite naked."—Buckley's Life and Adventures, p. 47. "They grease and paint themselves with red and white ochre. They pluck the white hairs out of their beards."—Ibid, p. 72-3. "They use three colors in painting themselves—viz., black, red, and white. The black and red colors are the produce of a soft stone, which they draw from a great distance in the north. By rubbing or scraping it they obtain a powder, which they rub into the fat which they have before put on their faces, arms, and breasts; the colors then assume quite a metallic lustre. The white color is prepared of a soft clay or chalk. It is applied on particular occasions only—among others, for dancing and when in mourning. . . . . For indicating mourning, the women paint their whole front, a ring round each eye, and a perpendicular line about the stomach; but the men paint the breast by making drawn or punctured streaks down from the shoulders, all verging
* ↑ The natives of the Louisiade Archipelago, Macgillivray states, paint themselves with two pigments—pounded charcoal mixed up with cocoa-nut oil, and lime, obtained from burnt shells, similarly treated. They also decorate their persons with flowers and strongly-scented plants, and with large white cowries appended to the waist, elbows, and ankles. They use, too, fragments of other shells, and human bones made into bracelets.—Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, 1852, vol. I., pp. 215-16.
* ↑ Collins says that the scars are made with the broken pieces of shell that they use at the end of the throwing-stick. By keeping open the incisions, the flesh grows up between the sides of the wound, and after a time, skinning over, forms a large weal or seam.—New South Wales, 1804, p. 358.
* ↑ Journal of Two Expeditions into the Interior of New South Wales, by John Oxley, 1817-18, p. 172.
* ↑ At the village of Tassai, on the largest of the Brumer group, Macgillivray saw specimens of tattooing. He says:—"This practice of tattooing the body, or marking it with coloring matter introduced into the skin by means of punctures or incisions, is rarely exhibited by the men, and in them is usually confined to a few blue lines or stars upon the right breast; in some instances, however, the markings consisted of a double series of large stars and dots stretching from the shoulder toward the pit of the stomach. Among the women the tattooing extends over the face, fore part of the arms, and whole front of body, continued backwards a little way over the shoulders, usually, but not always, leaving the back untouched. The pattern for the body consists of series of vertical stripes, less than an inch apart, connected by zigzag and other markings—that over the face is more complicated, and on the forearm and wrist it is frequently so elaborate as to assume the appearance of beautiful lace-work."—Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, vol. I., pp. 262-3.