Part 19 (2/2)

A central hole was then chipped--not bored or drilled--with another tool of quartz The hole was gradually enlarged by the use of a terhorn corals (MADEPORA LAXA) until a ring had been forh crescent, which was ground doith coral files, and the ends sharpened by rubbing on sold-lip mother-of-pearl shell, but by what old-lip shell was found, it was used to the last possible fragment Most frequently the black-lip mother-of-pearl was the material whence the hooks were fashi+oned, and, when none other was available, the hammer oyster In one case an unsuccessful endeavour had been lass, obtained, no doubt, frootten shi+p The fractured disc lying a other relics of the handicraft spoke for itself

Not only have many samples of partially-made hooks been found, but also the tools ement of quartz used to chip away the shell, the anvil of soft slate upon which the shell rested during the operation, the quartz chisel for chipping the central hole, the coral ter rat-tail files, and the sround down and finished

Hooks without barbs and manufactured of such ht upon the Hoht fish with the horn of the ox” In those far-off days, bronze wire rope, sin to the steel rope which is of common use in the present tih they anticipated one of the necessities of trade nowadays, depended upon fish-hooks rese abandoned by the Australian blacks Fish are guileless creatures They are captured today with hooks of the style upon which fishere depended

Froe of the islander who took part in the various searches, and as ready to adh pearl-shell hooks were used when he was a piccaninny he had never seen one e of these relics of a prehistoric art to be between thirty and forty years

This boy has supplied samples of hooks made by himself with the aid of files, etc, in i careful to explain that the old enerate days of steel Two of these modern hooks bound to bark lines are illustrated What was the origin of the peculiar pattern of the pearl-shell fish-hooks? To this question, those who maintain that no handiwork of man exists which does not borrow fro precedent to itself, may find a satisfactory answer offhand

As it weathers on the beach, the basal valve of the commonest of the oysters, of these waters occasionally assuments have at odd times attracted attention, for they have so closely reselances have been necessary to dispose of the illusion that they were actually rejects from some old-tiinal design was copied fro is traceable to a leaf? The pattern is so profoundly persistent in thea hook froht wire they invariably forh the superiority of the shape approved by civilisation must have been exemplified to them times out of number In this particular the blacks seem unconsciously to follow the idea of their ancestors as birds obey instinct in the building of nests and in hts

Piccaninnies at this date re as they sport with the sickle-shaped leaves (or rather PHYLLODIA) of the ACACIA HOLOCARPA as with s The piccaninny of the releefully as the jerked leaf returned to it As a boy he fashi+oned a larger and per his father's stone tomahawk and shell knife, while the oldor fighting, he found his boyish toy a very effective e and far higher velocity, with less strength expenditure, than the waddy or nulla-nulla; and its hoht had practical if not frequent uses In his childhood, adolescence and raphically summarises a chapter in the history of his race that he who runsand the shell fish-hook we have instances, hardly to be doubted, of direct inspirations from Nature, proofs of the art and the infinite patience hich she sets her copies and expounds her texts

WILD DYNAMITE

All the blacks of edoinal research or to the possession of any but coe Learned societies and learnedall that is possible to acquire and accu race I merely record odd incidents, which may or may not prove useful and of interest, or which leam of satisfaction is vouchsafed even to casual and superficial students of human nature

The supply of bait run out one day ere fishi+ng off the rocks with throw-lines Mickie said--”We catch 'em plenty little fella fish ild dynamite!” I asked him what he knew about dynamite ”Not white fella's dyna on the blistering rocks, with roots, down in the crevices, was a lowly vine, or rather a diffuse, creeping shrub with myrtle-like leaves and racemes of white flowers ”That fella wild dynamite,” said Mickie, as he tore up several strands of the plant and bunched theoing to an isolated pool in the rocks in which were s the bruised mass frequently in the water In a fewabout erratically, apparently et out of the water One by one they beca belly up Mickie filled his hat with them, and as the soporific effects of the juice of the leaves passed off, the reain as if nothing had happened Mickie had seen dynamite used to kill fish wholesale, hence his adaptation of the naarra,” and to botanists as DERRIS SCANDENS

Another method by which the blacks secure fish in pools left by the receding tide is to scrape off the inner bark of the ”Koie-yan”

(FARADAYA SPLENDIDA) with a shell and spread it evenly on the bottom of a shallow pit in the sand, and place thereon stones made hot in the fire, or they may rub the powdered bark on hot stones While still warm the stones are thrown into the water, when the fish beconated; while the effects of the DERRIS SCANDENS is merely temporarily soporific How blacks beca the toxic principle of the FARADAYA, and as speedily dissipating it, is unknown One generation passes on the knowledge to the other without explanation, and it is accepted as a matter of course, without comment or inquiry

A CAVERN AND ITS LEGEND

Caves and caverns in the rocks and the tops of theto theoon, which none but old men have visited, but which teems with fish and waterfowl When direct inquiries are oon, invariably inconclusive evidence is tendered ”Oldfor cross-exain of the romance, no doubt, is to be attributed to the desire of the blacks to account to thelitters on the face of the rocks far up the raphic description of a lagoon on the top of one of the highest peaks of Hinchinbrook Island, in which all manner of sea fish revelled When doubt was expressed as to the possibility of sea-water and sea-fish getting up so far ”on top” and it was suggested--”What you think, that oldyou?” ”Yes,”

was the ready response; ”” Soe

On the northern aspect of Dunk Island, where the sea swirls about the buttresses of the hills, there is a cavern only approachable by boat The h the moss which covers the lintel water trickles and splashes with pleasant sound When the bronze orchid lavishly decorates the rocks with its crinkled flowers of dull gold, the entrance has a specific character; and quite another when the glossy leaves of the u spikes of dull red, bead-like flowers attract the brilliant sun-bird, and big blue and green and red butterflies Even when the sea is lustrous the cavern, with all the artfulness and grace of the decorations of its portals, is a black blotch--the entrance to so unknowable and unknown--at least to the blacks None had ever ventured near it and they never will They tell you how it ca ers a plug of rock and put it ”on top alonga Hinchinbrook” Now the particular decapitated pinnacle of Hinchinbrook is 20 miles away, and out of all proportion But these facts do not affect the legitiend There is the hole, and there on the top of the far-awaydemonstrative evidence too obvious to be set aside on any such plea as the eternal fitness of things Is not the blue point of the end authenticated by tradition and confirraphy?

Why, therefore, doubt it for away under the mountain It is a bad place, a very bad place No one has ever been there Suppose any fella go inside, bi' all the honest traditions, one fine day I took a lantern in the boat and induced the boys to row to the entrance of the cave Neither would venture in; indeed, they did all they could to dissuadethat evil was sure to befall A minute's exploration showed that the cave did not extend 30 feet, and that it was dry, and resonant with ”the whispering sound of the cool colonnade,” with no suggestion of unwholesomeness or weirdness But the blacks still pass it by The legend is as indestructible as the odour of attar of roses Although the boys persist in their account of the origin of the cave, it is known to thenifies ”that hole -star hole”

Romance, too, follows the Hinchinbrook pinnacle So that it covers a deep hole in the nant ”debil-debil”

lifts the peak away the eleer and mischief When tired, they retire sulkily to the hole, which the ”debil-debil” blocks with the monstrous rock Fine weather then prevails, and the rock, which has been hidden away a the mists by the fiend, becomes visible once more

A SOULFUL DANCE

Of the many corrobborees that I have witnessed, the most novel in conception was perforhbourhood of Princess Charlotte Bay, some 200 miles to the north