Designs and patterns quite similar to, but on a smaller scale than those cut on trees, are found carved upon weapons of some of the tribes. Shields and spear-throwers are those most commonly found decorated with incised patterns. Some of the hardwood shields of the River Murray tribes are richly incised with parallel, zig-zag, and geniculate lines, and with squares standing point to point in a longitudinal line, all the spaces between the squares being filled in with parallel “elbows.” The Worora tribe at Port George IV, on the other hand, decorate their shields with fantastic representations of snakes, emus, and tracks of various animals. The light-wood shields of central Australia are destitute of any ornamentation except wide and shallow longitudinal grooves, which are also characteristic of the bark food-carriers in use all over the continent of Australia.
So far as spear-throwers are concerned, the handsomely carved specimens produced by the natives of the Warburton and Gascoyne Rivers, and of the King Leopold Ranges in Western Australia, deserve special mention. The favourite pattern in that region appears to be longitudinal geniculate bands, alternately incised lengthwise and crosswise, together giving the effect of a false herring-bone motive. A new element is introduced in wood-carving in the ceremonial spear-throwers of central Australian tribes by the inclusion of the concentric circles pattern already referred to; the Arunndta in particular produce some very showy specimens on gala occasions. The decoration is very finely graved upon the inner flat surface. The old Victorian types occasionally had pictures of animals, birds, and men carved upon them.
Boomerangs are often decorated with incised patterns, but more frequently the decoration is only lightly graved into the wood with the point of a stone-knife or with the sharp cutting edge of a shell, tooth, or bone. From an art point of view, the finest productions come from the north of Western Australia. The King Leopold Ranges natives cover one whole side of their boomerangs with an incised pattern, consisting usually of parallel geniculate lines, false herring-bone, or concentric rhomboids posed along a median line. Some of the most attractive specimens, however, come from the Pidunga tribe at Broome. These natives covered both surfaces of the missile with a wonderful variety of designs, which included excellent representations of emu, kangaroo, snakes, crocodiles, turtle, tracks of every description, dancing men, corrobboree circles, and many decorative designs. Other articles, such as adze-handles, tjuringas, and message sticks, are carved after much the same fashion.
Fig. 15. Ochre drawing, Glenelg River, Western Australia (× 1/8).
There is yet another class of incised decorative art to record which is found in the far north of Western Australia. The King Sound and other natives of the northern Kimberley district have developed a cult quite peculiar to themselves, in that they carve ornate designs upon the brown surface of the large nuts of the boabab. The method they have adopted is to hold the nut firmly in the left hand and work the designs into the dark, outer layer of the shell with the sharp point of a bone, or, as is the case nowadays, with the point of a piece of iron wire or of a pocket knife. The instrument is held in the right hand, with the four fingers against the palm, while the thumb is laid straight along it on top. The nut is steadied against the body whilst the point of the instrument is applied from the distant side. By applying semi-rotary movements with the hand, the point is made to plough forwards, and by so doing the thin, brown surface-skin is broken and falls away, leaving a white, and slightly jagged, line upon a dark background. Many are the designs which cover the surface of a boabab nut; and it must be admitted the artists exercise considerable judgment in the grouping of the subjects displayed. Among the more important figures are included animals, birds, reptiles, fish, and human beings, besides many of a more complicated and less apparent nature. Vide [Plate XLIII], 1.
The north-western tribes, from Broome to Wyndham, and to a lesser extent those of the Northern Territory, artistically decorate the pearl-shell coverings they wear suspended from the belt by cutting designs into the smooth surface of the inner shell of the oyster. By rubbing powdered red ochre into the portions thus roughened, the carvings stand out in bold contrast against the nacreous background. The designs are largely conventional and often embody the human form; a few tracks of animals or of birds are also occasionally added.
Fig. 16. Carved crocodile design on boabab nut, Derby district, Western Australia (× 3/5). Tracing.
Unlike his racial relative, who used to live in Europe during the Stone Age, the Australian aboriginal does not pay much attention to the carving of bone. The little he does, in fact, is more utilitarian than artistic. We have had occasion to note that the old Murray River tribes used to make the points of their spear-throwers of bone. In central Australia a wing bone of the pelican is cut at both ends and worn through the septum of the nose; occasionally one end is plugged with triodia resin whilst the hollow in the opposite end carries a plume. Not infrequently the slender ulna of a kangaroo serves a similar purpose; the shaft is cut about six inches from one end and sharpened by scraping it with a stone fragment; the condyles are left intact to represent the head of the pin. Two types of bone fish-hooks have already been referred to.