1. Singing to the presiding spirit or Knaninja of the old women or “Arrekutja Tjuringa.”
2. Ceremonial head-gear (“Tjilba Purra”) of phallic significance.
We shall next consider a number of figures in this series which have to do with the human form. In some cases the attempts at representing the human body have been very crude (Figs. 17, 45, 46), and it would be difficult to recognize the results if it were not for the association of these figures with others in which the human form is more evident. In Fig. 13 we behold a man whose attitude suggests that he is either walking or dancing; in all probability the former, because his body is not in any way decorated to suggest a ceremony. But when we look at Fig. 42, our attention is drawn to the fact that the man there represented is wearing a pubic tassel hanging from his belt, carrying a tall head-gear, and has tribal markings or scars upon his chest; moreover, in this case the eyes and mouth are shown, but not the nose. In Figs. 6, 43, and 44, pubic appendages are shown, which in all probability are intended to represent a hair tassel in the first instance, and pearl shell in the others; head-gears are also indicated. All the figures have the arms extended as if a dancing attitude were attempted by the artist. It is most unusual to find all the facial features, including the chin, represented as in Fig. 44. There is no neck shown in any of the last-mentioned figures, although in other cases (Fig. 13) it is clearly indicated. It will be observed that in several of the figures (Figs. 6, 42, 44), the feet are represented by their tracks. The only remaining figure is that of a dancing gin (Fig. 29), the characteristic position of whose arms suggests the dance during which they hold a skein of hair or fibre-string between their hands to jerk it to and fro.
A real illustration of the Port Hedland type of carving is presented in [Plate XL], 1, but owing to the carving occurring upon a horizontal plane, the tilting of the camera, which was necessary, has rather seriously distorted the design. A correct copy is, however, included among the designs reproduced on [page 300] (Fig. 10, 6).
Turning now to the pre-historic carvings of the Flinders Ranges and other localities cited, it would be impossible to discuss the enormous number of designs in anything like detail, without unduly burdening the dimensions of this volume. At certain places, like Deception Creek and Yunta, the carvings are so numerous that it is difficult to find a space entirely devoid of any; the places are deserving of being ranked as primitive art galleries, and every endeavour should be made to preserve them as such. Considerable care must have been taken in the execution of these carvings, since either the outline or the entire area of every design has been diligently chipped away. And the work of hours must have run into the labour of years, yea, of generations, because at one or two spots like Yunta one design has been carved over the top of another, time after time, until eventually the ground appeared as though it were covered with an elaborate carpet. A few illustrations only will be selected to serve as types of the handiwork to be found in such great profusion.
In the first picture ([Plate XL], 2), a design will be observed near the centre consisting of seven parallel vertical lines lying beneath a horizontal band. From what we have learned above, we shall have no difficulty in recognizing the shape of a pubic tassel or apron, so commonly used throughout Australia. Immediately to the left of this is the image of a long lizard clearly and wholly intagliated into the rock; whilst just above the tassel, and a little to the right of it, stands the form of a creature with two legs, a plump body, two large eyes (appearing like circles at the top), and an elevated beak between them—this is the representation of an owl! About midway between owl and lizard is a small mark resembling an inverted broad arrow which stands for the track of a bustard, commonly called wild turkey.
The next illustration ([Plate XLI], 1) may, for convenience of discussion, be divided into two halves by the joint-fissure which is seen running vertically down the middle of the picture. In the centre of the left-hand half, the dark, and deeply pitted, shape of a human foot-print, with the toes pointing upwards, will be apparent. Upon the brightly illuminated surface above it, the vertical strands of a pubic tassel are indistinctly visible; whilst on the left of the foot-print a small wallaby track has been cut, in which the long median toes, as well as the lateral, have been truly imitated. Beneath the latter, upon the elevated portion of rock, is a single corrobboree circle. But the most interesting figure is near the centre of the right-hand half of the picture; the creature it most resembles is the duck-billed platypus. The “duck-bill” is very conspicuous, whilst the head, the plump body, and the stumpy tail all agree with the appearance of the platypus, even to the claws, which are clearly seen on the right hind leg. It is, of course, possible that the carving was intended to stand for a native “hedge-hog” or Echidna, but the former explanation would seem more true to Nature. The remaining carvings are principally representations of the paired spoors of wallaby and kangaroo.
The following two photographs ([Plate XLI], 2, and [Plate XLII], 1) present similar subjects, the carvings consisting of an array of corrobboree circles, human foot-prints, and tracks of wallaby, kangaroo, and turkey. A new feature is contained in the upper illustration in the shape of the claws of kangaroo or possibly of the human hand; these are seen in the top right-hand quarter.
PLATE XXXIX