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Bora ground, but those I have selected are among the best executed and most important.

Figure 17-At a native cemetery on Bulgeraga creek, parish of Wullamgambone, county of Gregory, New South Wales, I found four marked trees, of which the one illustrated is an example. This is a box and has five spiral lines cut around it. Two other box trees and a sandalwood tree are marked in a similar manner, but with fewer spiral lines. The marks consist of a continuous nick cut through the bark of the trees with a tomahawk.

General Remarks

For the purpose of showing the wide geographic distribution of aboriginal pictures of the character here treated I have selected and arranged in chronologic sequence a few examples from each of the colonies, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia, with references to the works from which they are quoted. Following these quotations I have described a large and varied collection of drawings on the ground and on trees, the result of my own investigations, which are now published for the first time. Figures 1 to 36, accompanying this paper, have been prepared from careful sketches and measurements made by myself. Their position on the government maps is also stated in the descriptions, so that they can easily be found by any person desirous of visiting them.

Earthen figures formed in high relief or engraven upon the turf, representing human beings, different animals, and the curious designs called yammunyamun are found chiefly at those places where the young men of the tribe are admitted into the ranks of manhood. Where they have been observed in other localities the circumstances would lead us to suppose that they were connected with some tribal myth or superstition. In support of this view the attention of the reader is invited to the animal called the warway mentioned by Mr Wyndham, the huge snake referred to by Mr Curr, and the swan-like creature described to me by Mr McKay, mentioned in preceding previous pages.

The drawings on trees consist of representations of men, animals, weapons, the different heavenly bodies, lightning, and other devices. Among the Kamilaroi, Wiradthuri, and other

tribes with which I am acquainted marked trees of the character indicated are found at those camps where the initiation ceremonies are performed. The graves of the natives, the scenes of some of their fights, and remarkable events in their daily life are likewise commemorated by curious symbols marked on the trees standing around the spot.

Although the purpose of this paper is to deal only with drawings on the ground and on trees, yet as the carving or painting of devices on wooden implements of the chase and on other objects, as well as on the bodies of the natives themselves, is so intimately connected with the subject I have in hand, I have deemed it desirable to make a short reference to that kind of aboriginal drawing.

The lines carved on native weapons and utensils are generally in the form of the chevron, herring-bone, saltier, or oval, but occasionally the figure of a human being or an animal is found. The instruments used in carving wood consist of pieces of broken stone or shell, sharpened pieces of bone, or the teeth of animals. Sometimes their shields, etc., are painted in red and white lines.* The natives marked their bodies by scars, ordinarily in a very rude manner, but occasionally men have been seen whose bodies bore cicatrices in regular lines, making a sort of pattern. These scars are made with instruments similar to those used in wood carving.

I have heard from old residents of the back country that the natives of Diamantina and Georgina rivers, Queensland, when dancing corroborees, ornament their bodies with figures of men and animals, outlined in ochers of various colors.

Mr L. Schulze, in describing the tjurunga festivals of the natives of Finke river, South Australia, says: "According to the nature of the tjurunga is the ornamentation of the body; thus, for a fish festival the body is painted with fish-like figures, although the fishes may be the same for several persons. messengers who are sent to the neighboring tribes inviting them to attend the tjurunga are painted on the back with a sort of red

The

*For specimens of carvings on wood see W. H. Breton's "Excursions in N S. W., W. A., and V. D. L," 1830-33, 2d ed., plate facing p. 206, Figs. 1, 6, and 12; also to the drawings on weapons and implements shown in the plates given in R. B. Smyth's "Aborigines of Victoria," 1, pp. 283-341; and in E M. Curr's "Australian Races," 1, pp. 143-151. A remarkable instance of this kind of drawing on the body of a native of Queensland is illustrated in Smyth's "Aborigines of Victoria," I, p. 11, Fig. 6.

disk formed of concentric rings, with four half-round disks, also consisting of concentric curves."*

Mr S. Gason states that at the Mindarie dance or peace festival "the men are artistically decorated with down and feathers, with all kinds of designs-crosses, diamonds, circles, and parallel lines. The down and feathers are stuck on their bodies with blood freshly taken from their penis. They are also nicely painted with various colors, and tufts of boughs tied on their ankles to make a noise while dancing."†

Closely allied to the marking of trees, and still more nearly connected with rock painting, is the native practice of stripping pieces of bark from adjacent trees and ornamenting their inner sides with various designs, after which they are either hung on trees or laid with their ends on the ground, the back of the bark resting against a tree or sapling. When surveying pastoral runs on Barwan river, New South Wales, in 1871, I saw at native camps pieces of bark on which were drawn rude figures of men, fish, and other objects. They were outlined in pipe-clay, red ocher, or charcoal, and in some instances there was a combination of two or more of these colors in the same drawing. I have heard of paintings on sheets of bark among the natives of some of the other colonies.

A few remarks on images cut out of wood and bark of trees, as indicating native notions of sculpture, will not be out of place before concluding this paper. In my paper on "The Bora or Initiation Ceremonies of the Kamilaroi Tribe "‡ I described two male figures cut out of bark and fixed up against trees. One of these had his head ornaments, with emu feathers, and the other held in his hand a hielaman or native shield. I also described the figure of an iguana about 3 feet long, a figure of the sun 2 feet in diameter, and one of the full moon 18 inches in diameter, all cut out of bark and fastened to trees.

The contents of this paper, taken in connection with previous memoirs on "Rock Paintings and Carvings" contributed by the writer to other journals, will be found to contain in condensed form the entire subject of Australian aboriginal draw

* Trans. Roy. Soc. South Australia, xiv, pp. 231 and 243.
Journ. Anthrop. Inst, xxiv, p. 173.

Journ. Anthrop. Inst., xxiv, p. 417.

See list of works quoted in the foot-note to the first page of this paper.

ing. Much more yet remains to be done in this direction, and I sincerely hope that these efforts will have the effect of inducing a student here and there to continue the work which I have begun.

The dawn of art among a primitive people has left its traces in the form of paintings in many a smoke-blackened cavern and in carvings on the smooth rocks of the hilltops; in the figures raised or graven on the surface of the ground and in the rude devices cut or painted upon trees; in the carvings upon wooden implements and in the images cut out of wood and bark. In many respects these examples of the development of the native. intellect in various parts of Australia are among the most interesting and valuable which can engage the attention of anthropologists.

THE QUESTION OF HEREDITY.-M. Milne-Edwards has reviewed a communication from M. Remy Saint-Loup relative to the modifications of the species and the heredity of acquired character. M. Remy Saint-Loup has obtained the gradual formation of a supplementary claw to the foot of the guinea-pig and the reproduction of the new form. This supplementary claw, after three generations, is perfectly conformed to the other parts of the foot and is in every respect like the primitive claws. Instead of producing a modification injurious to the race, like that made in the interesting experiments of MM. Gley and Charrin, to which we have before referred, the changes of form obtained by M. Remy Saint-Loup are not prejudicial to the survival or biological perfection of the descendants. The hypotheses of the theories of transformism appear in these experiments to have a clear demonstration and a certain confirmation.-Les Temps.

A NEW DYNAMOMETER.-M. Sarrau presented in the name of Charles Henry a new dynamometer, especially applicable to physiology and medicine, which gives the value, in fractions of horse power, of the strength of the muscles and the power of living motors in general. This new method, the only one which is exact from a mechanical point of view, shows, for instance, that a woman whose strength, measured by the old dynamometer, is about one-half that of a man, is capable of only onefourth of his work.-Académie des Sciences, Les Temps.

A VIGIL OF THE GODS-A NAVAHO CEREMONY

WASHINGTON MATTHEWS

It is my purpose in this paper to describe some rites which possess many points of interest to the student of ceremonies. In them we find a nocturnal vigil analogous to that of the medieval knight over his armor; we find a vigil in which men and gods, or the properties that represent the gods, alike take part; we find evidence of the belief in a community of feeling and interest between gods and men, and we have an instance of a primal feast in common or love-feast closely resembling certain ceremonial acts performed among ourselves today.

The rites to be described occur on the fourth night of a great nine days' ceremony known among the Navaho as kiedji hathal, or the night chant. The principal purpose of this great ceremony is to heal the ailing man or woman who defrays all the expenses of the ceremony; but the occasion is used, also, to implore the gods for various temporal blessings, not only for the sick man, but for all who participate in the work, with their friends and relations.

This ceremony, like nearly all ceremonies, ancient and modern, is connected with a legend or myth (several myths, indeed, in this case), and many of the acts in the ceremony are illustrative of the mythic events.

From about nine o'clock on the fourth night to about dawn on the fifth day this vigil is maintained over the masks and other properties of the dance. The patient and the boy and girl who accompany him stay awake all night; so may some of those who participate in the singing. At any moment of the night it will be seen that the great majority of the numerous occupants of the commodious medicine-lodge are awake. Wakefulness is the order of the night. Still there are few who do not take an occasional doze during the watch; even the shaman who conducts the ceremonies may sometimes be seen to close his eyes and nod his head when the small hours come on. There is no light save that of the fire which blazes in the center of the lodge; there is no seat save mother earth; the temptation to stretch your weary back

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