Upon an order like this from one of the old men, the following day’s itinerary is cast. Brief though it seems, it is sufficient because, although the chances of the coming expedition might widely separate the members of the group, they keep in constant touch with each other by signs and signals best known to themselves.
The site for a camping ground is thus always selected by one of the old men in authority. Preference is given, other things being equal, to a spot near to a natural water supply. There are, of course, numerous occasions when there is no water available. When, for instance, the natives are hunting in the sandhills during a good season, they either carry water with them for miles, or rely on the succulent parakylia and other water-holding plants.
It falls to the lot of the women to carry water upon such occasions. The fluid is contained in bark carriers of different designs, which they either skilfully balance upon their heads or carry under their arms. The water is kept from splashing over the sides, in the first place by the naturally graceful gait of the women; but, at the same time, an intentional addition of twigs and branchlets further checks any undue movement of the fluid which might be produced in the vessel during the march.
The Dieri, Yantowannta, Ngameni, Arunndta, Aluridja, Wongapitcha, and other central Australian tribes use shield or trough-shaped carriers cut out of the bark of the eucalyptus, shaped and hardened over the fire. The shield type is flat, with more or less open ends; the trough type has higher sides and ends, and is therefore more capacious. There is, however, no hard and fast division between the two. The surfaces of these are either smooth or longitudinally grooved with a stone scraper. The largest were observed on Cooper’s Creek, measuring three feet in length, one foot in width, and five inches in depth, while those of the Arunndta and Aluridja are not quite so long and wide, but they may be deeper. The utensils go by different names, according to tribe and locality; three of the most commonly heard are “mika,” “pitchi,” and “cooleman.” In addition to taking the place of water-holders, they are also used as food-carriers.
North of the MacDonnell Ranges, similar articles are cut out of solid wood, usually the Northern Territory Beantree (Erythrina vespertilio).
The Warramunga and Kaitish (or Kaitidji) tribes in addition make large canoe-shaped carriers out of similar material. Two varieties are met with. The first is more or less flat-bottomed with steeply inclined sides coming to a sharp edge at each end; the second is uniformly curved, shield-like, with all its sides standing at about the same level at the open end. The former is grooved longitudinally on the outside surface only, the inside being left in the rough; the latter is finely grooved on the inner, as well as the outer surfaces. Both types are generally painted over with red ochre. It is a decidedly laborious job to remove the wood, which originally fills the inside of this carrier, a fact which will be realized when one considers that it has all to be done by burning with live coals, and gouging and scraping with stone implements.
The Sunday Islanders take a rectangular sheet of bark of the woolly-butt eucalyptus, fold both ends for a distance of three or four inches, into pleats (like a concertina), and stitch them together with split cane. The utensil is used throughout the north-west coast as far as Cambridge Gulf.
On Bathurst and Melville Islands similar structures are made out of the bark of the paper-bark tree (Melaleuca). An oblong piece is bent upon itself lengthwise, both its ends folded, as in the previous case, and kept together by binding with cane or by spiking with short wooden pegs.
The same pattern, slightly modified here and there, is found along the shores and islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Cape York Peninsula. We might say, therefore, that it occurs throughout the entire length of the north coast of Australia.
Another type, perhaps more food than water-carrier, is common on Melville and Bathurst Islands; it is made of a single piece of the “stringy-bark” eucalypt. An oblong sheet, say a good yard long and nearly half as wide, is freshly cut and folded transversely at its centre. The edges of both sides are pared down, laid flat, one over the other, and sewn or laced together with plain or “run-on” stitches. A row of slanting and overlapping stitches is often inserted along the open edge a short distance down; and occasionally part of the same edge may be cross-hemstitched and plastered with beeswax; the object of these stitches is to prevent the bark tearing along the fibres. The mouth of the carrier is nearly circular, or at any rate oval. Ordinarily the bark is left in its raw condition, but upon special occasions elaborate designs, consisting of circles, and other figures, with cross-hatched line-patterns, are drawn on the outer surfaces in red, yellow, white, and black.