The carving of an Arunndta man, reproduced in [Fig. 26], is most effective. An angry husband has been caught by the artist in the act of punishing his wife with a waddy. The placement of the legs of the two persons indicates stability on the part of the man engaged in the flagellation, and a swinging movement on the part of the woman who is being held back by her hand.
Fig. 35. A dog-track.
We have already seen the carved representations of two stages in a stone-knife duel by an Arunndta tribesman ([Fig. 4]), and here, in [Fig. 27], an ochre drawing is reproduced which is, if anything, more animated than any previously discussed. A spear-boomerang duel is being fought, during which each of the combatants is protecting himself with a shield. The artist has evinced considerable talent in portraying the men just at the moment when both are bounding through the air towards each other, the one on the left parrying his opponent’s spear, while the other, on the right, is preparing to receive the blow from the boomerang.
Fig. 36. A kangaroo-track.
One might now go a step further in analyzing aboriginal art. The productions we have studied so far embody the ideas of form, life, and action; and, it might be added, occasionally one finds a very fair sense of composition as well. Such, indeed, might already be said to be true of several of the pictures discussed above, but a finer specimen lies before us in the charcoal drawing from Pigeon Hole ([Fig. 28]). This faithfully portrays a scene from a gala ceremony, in which the body of performers, fully “dressed” for the occasion, are acting before the leader, who, in his turn, is being supported by two others in the foreground. It must be admitted that the composition of this group of figures is remarkably good, and, what is quite exceptional, a very successful attempt has been made at perspective. All figures are shown in different attitudes of dancing. The impression this charcoal drawing gives one, at first glance, is that of a rough sketch in crayon resembling the outline a European artist might make on his canvas prior to starting upon the actual painting.
Fig. 37. A rabbit track.
Leaving that section of aboriginal art which deals essentially with designs copied directly from Nature in a sense more or less purely artistic and æsthetic, we shall turn our attention to a few types which are more specialized.