Page:The Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina.djvu/144

139 when well shrunk, which they become from drying, the seams formed by them are both strong and firm. Needles not being known to them in their savage state, a bodkin made of bone was the instrument by which the punctures to receive the sinews were made, and the quickness and dexterity displayed in the manipulation of these rude instruments and appliances is truly astonishing.

In wet weather the rug is invariably worn with the fur to the weather. Worn in this manner they are almost impervious to rain, whereas when the flesh side is exposed to the wet the cloak becomes saturated and consequently unpleasant in a very short space of time.

In those portions of Australia where nardoo and other freely seeding plants containing farina in the seeds abound the natives possessed mills wherewith to bruise the seed into a coarse description of flour. These mills were made of quartz slates, shaped like an ellipsis, shelving gradually from the edges to the centre; in size they were two feet six inches long by eighteen inches broad, the pestal being a clumsy piece of the same material, shaped somewhat like a steelyard weight.

These mills were quite common from the north-western portion of Victoria right through to Cooper's Creek, on the confines of New South Wales, and thence to Lake Hope, in South Australia, but doubtless they are extant to this day in the regions remote from settlement.