Fig. 22. Bark-drawing depicting an eagle-hawk clawing and tearing the carcass of a wallaby, Port Darwin.
An aboriginal not only paints the sides of the caves he temporarily occupies, but he also delights in decorating the sheets of bark which in certain districts, such as the north coast of Australia and Melville and Bathurst Islands, are used for making his huts waterproof. The method he adopts in applying ochre to bark is precisely similar to that already considered in connection with his cave drawings. And we might at the same time extend these remarks to the decorative designs which appear in such profusion upon his spears, shields, boomerangs, spear-throwers, waddies, clubs, food and water carriers, dilly bags, ceremonial objects, personal ornaments, and, in fact, anything he has occasion to manufacture and handle.
A special variety of ochre drawing which may justify a few remarks is the tribal body decoration. We know that as a simple, but effective, means of protecting his skin against the weather, an aboriginal periodically anoints his body with emu fat; moreover, to evade detection by the game he is stalking, he often covers his body with ochre, earth, or clay to simulate the colour of his surroundings as nearly as possible. But for reasons, to him entirely cosmetic, he finds occasion to rub red ochre powder (and charcoal also) over his face and body.
Fig. 23. Pipe-clay drawing of man and dogs, Humbert River (× 1/12).
He has a distinct liking for the beautiful and does not hesitate to avail himself of anything which might tend to make his person more attractive looking by the application of colour. Not only the sire, but the whole family endeavour to improve their swarthy appearance by painting ornate designs over different regions of their bodies. Longitudinal, parallel bands of red, yellow, or black, extending up the legs, back, and abdomen, together with transverse lines on the chest, shoulders, upper arms, and outer surfaces of thighs, are symmetrically drawn, and connected here and there (as, for instance, on the chest or back) by lattice patterns and concentric circles. Parents are very proud of their children thus decorated. On the Forrest River, a favourite mode is to draw a broad step-ladder-like pattern from the ankles up the front surfaces of the legs, continuing this up the trunk to about the level of the nipples, and then circling outwards, down an arm on either side, to run out at the elbow. This design is usually painted in yellow.
PLATE XLI
1. Rock carvings (including platypus design), Flinders Ranges.
2. Rock carvings, Flinders Ranges.