Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/428

344 Some are no larger than a purse, and others almost like fishing-nets. The fancies or necessities of the women determine the size of the bag. When the fur is picked off the opossum or native cat, the woman sits down and works it into twine by rubbing it with her hand on the inside of the thigh. The bags are very strong and durable. Fig. 156 shows the arrangement of the loops. The Rev. Mr. Bulmer says that the bag (Ba-thung) used by the women of Gippsland for carrying their property is sometimes made of grass, and not seldom of the fibre of the stringybark. A bag—Bee-lang—used by the natives of the Yarra is shown in Fig. 157. It is thirteen inches in length, and four inches in depth, when not extended. It is elastic, and would contain a great quantity of goods if necessary. The twine of which it is composed is made of the fibre of the bark of a eucalypt {Eucalyptus obliqua). It is strong and well twisted. The mode of construction