Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/143

138 In the making of their opossum cloaks it might be said that they display at least a modicum of taste approaching to the artistic. When an opossum skin has been thoroughly dried and all the fat removed it requires to be scraped to ensure pliancy; this part of the operation is performed by means of sharp-edged mussel-shells, and scraping so performed is generally done so as to represent a pattern of some kind. They succeed in doing this so well that the various portions scraped upon the separate skins join together most accurately when sewn into the rug.

Before the advent of Europeans these cloak patterns usually took a scrolly shape, and striking objects in nature, such as flowers, foliage, or animals, were never copied. Since then, however, we have seen the great glaring designs common to cheap druggists very successfully reproduced, even to the colours. These colours are made by mixing pigments of different shades with fish oil, and laying the shades on the respective portions of the designs requiring them, thus produce an exact counterpart of the copy. Should a rugmaker be entirely lacking in artistic taste he merely scrapes the skin diagonally. When the whole skin has been thus scraped he turns the skin round and again scrapes diagonally, this time, of course, the scraping crosses the lines first made, thus forming a lossenge-shaped design. This latter method, as regards utility, is unequalled by any other, for thus treated, if the pattern be a small one, the skins become pliant and soft as well-prepared doe-skin.

The prepared skins are sewn together by means of fine sinews, which are drawn from opossum tails, instead of thread; these sinews are used whilst in a damp state,