Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/464

380 The stone knife (Fig. 200) is also from the north. Mr. Panton says it is used by the Aborigines of Booloo and Cooper's Creek. The stone is a hard, dense, rather granular quartzite. It has not been ground or polished—that is impracticable with such a stone—but it has been so skilfully fractured as to present a fine serrated cutting edge. The implement is altogether nearly eight inches in length. The stone is firmly fixed to the wooden handle by gum. With it one can easily cut wood, and in the hands of the natives it must have been a useful tool. The stone knife (Fig. 201) is also formed of quartzite and by percussion. It would be almost impossible to grind or polish it. It is used by the natives of the Paroo. It is not provided with a wooden handle, but one end is encased in opossum skin (the fur outwards), so as to admit of its being grasped firmly and used easily.

This implement is in the possession of Capt. Rothwell, R.A., formerly Private Secretary to the late Lord Canterbury.

The people of New Zealand have axes and adzes not differing very much from those of the Australians; but in general the stone-head is nephrite. The head of one in my collection—a specimen which formerly belonged to Mr. A. Tighe—is exactly like the Australian stone axe. It has been formed by striking off flakes, and the cutting part has been ground. The wooden handle, however, is different. A notch has been cut in it, and the stone is inserted in the notch and tied with strong twine. It is a beautiful implement.

The stone-head is four inches in length, and rather more than two and a half inches in breadth, and it has a sharp edge. The wooden handle is nineteen inches in length.

Figs. 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, and 207 represent fragments of black basalt exactly similar, mineralogically, to the basalt which occurs at Malmsbury, and identified by Wye-wye-a-nine as chips that the Australians used in making jagged spears. The name of the chip amongst his people is Ped-th—(pronounced with a lisp).