Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/374

290 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. 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