Any number of people might be represented by the same number of short, straight, vertical lines. Followed by a zig-zag line, such people are represented as being on the march. When a small dot stands on each side of the straight line, or perhaps a number of dots in intermediate positions between the lines, the design conveys the idea that the people are camped, the dots standing for camp fires. Moreover, when a horizontal line lies over the upright lines, the last-named indicates that a hut, shelter, or breakwind was used during the encampment ([Fig. 54]).
When there is an obvious, and intended, difference in the lengths of the upright lines, the longer represent men, the shorter women.
Reverting now to the cross, and looking more closely into its development, expansion, and embodiment in anthropomorphous designs, we meet with one or two points of considerable interest.
We have had occasion to note that throughout central and northern Australia, the tribes during the final acts of initiation ceremonies make use of a sacred cross, called “Wanningi” or “Wanninga” in the former region and “Parli” in the western portions of the latter. These wanningi are constructed only immediately before they are required and are destroyed again the moment the ceremony is over. Women are not allowed to see them under any consideration. A wanningi is made by fixing two pieces of wood together in the shape of a cross, then, by starting at the intersection of the arms, a long string, made of human hair, is wound spirally round and round, from arm to arm, until the whole space between the arms is filled in. The size of these crosses varies from three or four inches up to two feet or more. This object is produced by the Aluridja just before the mutilation of the neophyte is to take place. At this critical moment of the youth’s life, when he is stepping from adolescence across the great gap which will lead him to manhood, the spirit of the Great Tukura presides invisibly concealed within the wanningi, but returns to his high abode again when the function is over. Vide [Plate XLIII], 2.
PLATE XLVI
Wordaman native with his body and head decorated in imitation of skeleton and skull, Victoria River, Northern Territory.
The spiral winding of hair-string around the arms of the wanningi associates the idea of the rhombic outline of the string with the arms of the cross. In the representation of the human form, one often finds the two patterns combined, or, it may be, the rhomb replaces the cross.
In the example before us ([Fig. 55], a), we have an engraved pattern appearing on a spear-thrower, the motive of which, were it not that the artist had added a human face, would have been very difficult for the untrained eye to recognize. As it is, we have the unmistakable evidence of an anthropomorphous design. Not only does a modified rhomb represent the body of a man, but the figure itself is flourishing the crossed arms of a “Wanningi” in its right hand. The principal design thus identified passes, at the bottom, into a pattern composed of several polygonal figures which may, no doubt, be looked upon as derivatives of an original rhomb.
In the other illustration ([Fig. 55], b), which is also a carving upon a spear-thrower, the intricate association of the rhomb with the human form is again apparent. The figure of a man, with face in profile, is represented in a plain and more or less conventional way; the straight trunk with the two arms resting upon the hips, symmetrically on each side, in itself suggests the rhomb, but, in addition, most of the intervening spaces have been filled in with parallel lines and a cross-hatching pattern which embodies the rhomb.