Page:Notes on the Aborigines of New South Wales.djvu/10

Rh cut through about 8 feet from the base, and all the bark peeled off from the stem, as well as the spreading roots. These stumps were then carried to the goonaba, and holes dug in the ground, into which the upper ends of the stems were inserted and the earth filled in tightly around them to make them stand firm. The stumps were thus completely inverted, leaving the roots at the top, some of which extended outwards, almost horizontally, about 4 feet, and were ornamented by narrow strips of frayed bark twisted around them. These stumps, called wardengahlee, one of which was belar and the other coolabah, were 12 feet apart and 5 ft. 5 in. out of the ground—the stems and roots of both being smeared with human blood. The blood for this purpose was obtained by making small incisions, with a piece of sharp flint or shell, in the arms of several initiated men, and collecting the blood in vessels as it dripped from the wounds.

Starting from the larger, or boora, circle, and proceeding along the track, thoonburgna, it was found to enter the scrub almost at once, and at the distance of 87 yards, on the right-hand side. No. 9 on plan, was a representation of the arbour or "playhouse" of a bower-bird, weeda, containing a collection of small pebbles, fragments of bone, and the seeds of some wild fruits. In the mythologic past, the weeda was an eminent "medicine man," or goondaidhar, among the Kamilaroi and neighbouring tribes. At the distance of 143 yards from the starting point on the right side was the horizontal image of Baiamai, No. 10, with his wife on the opposite side, No. 11 on the plan. These two figures are delineated as 48 and 49 on Plate 2, and will be described presently.

Twenty-three yards beyond the two last figures was the goomee, or Baiamai's fire, No. 12 on the plan. In a forked box-tree, 80 yards back from the goonaba, on the left of the track, at the height of about 18 feet from the ground, was a tolerably good imitation of an eaglehawk's nest; the position of this tree is shown on the plan as No. 13. Fifteen yards from the last mentioned, towards the goonaba, was a small box-tree, along the bole of which a wavy band, about 2 inches wide, had been cut with a tomahawk through the bark, and extending from the ground to a height of 25 feet, representing a tree which had been struck by lightning (No. 14 on plan).

I will now proceed to describe some carvings copied by me from a number of trees which were scattered here and there along the track from the weeda's arbour to the goonaba. These carvings are shown on Plate 2, hereto annexed, as Figs. 1 to 18 inclusive. Fig. 8 represents the crescent moon, cut through the bark, and a short distance below it are four zig-zag lines. This is the tree which contains the eaglehawk's nest already mentioned as No. 13 on the plan. On another tree, Fig. 13, there is a centipede 3 ft. 1 in. in length, with eighteen legs, chopped through the bark into the wood, with some diamond or lozenge shaped devices below it. On a forked box-tree was the outline of an iguana (Fig. 17), 5 ft. 2 in. long, cut through the bark. Fig. 18 represents a carpet snake 9 ft. 1 in. in length, with its head toward the ground, cut in the same manner. The marking on the remainder of the trees shown in the plate consists of the usual zig-zag, lozenge, oval, and other devices.

In the annexed plate I have reproduced some of the ground drawings copied by myself at the same Bora camp as that containing the trees already dealt with. Figs 19 to 45 will fairly represent the different patterns of gowan carved upon the turf on that occasion. The largest