422 CERTAIN OBJECTS OF UNKNOWN SIGNIFICANCE, 



The two principal designs, if such they can be called, are a 

 gash and a mark very like the well-known "broad- arrow." Tlie 

 gashes are sometimes long and deep, sometimes short and faint; 

 they run either perpendicular or else parallel to the base. 



The " broad-arrows " (I shall use this term, although probably 

 these markings had quite another significance) have been made 

 by three cuts. Occasionally only one barb appears, and I shall 

 speak of these as "incomplete arrows." And, again, the barbs 

 are sometimes continued so as to cross each other — these I shall 

 call " cross-barbed arrows." 



The gashes appear in pairs, in groups of three, four, and so on 

 to beyond a score, one under the other or ranged side by side. 



The appended diagrammatic sketches of the markings (PI. xiii., 

 fig.s. 1-2) on the most elaborately carved specimen (No. 1) will 

 give an idea of their general character and distribution through- 

 out the series. One also .shows a star-like ornament, formed, I 

 believe, by three "arrows " meeting, peculiar to this specimen 



The question at once arises : " Are these markings symbolical 

 or are they decorative T' 



If it could be said that they all have a certain significance, and 

 that arranged thus they conveyed to the initiated a certain mean- 

 ing, we would have gone far in determining the use of the 

 ^'stones." For my part I am inclined to think they are merely 

 decorative. The marks I have called " broad -arrow s " may be 

 imitations of emu tracks. I rather think they are; but we are 

 not therefore justified in saying they are symbolical of the emu. 



Similar gashes are repeated a certain number of times, but 

 repetition is the most noticeable feature of aljoriginal decorative 

 art. I shall refer to this matter again later, and will now proceed 

 with the descriptions. 



No. 1 (Plate XII.) is in the possession of Professor W. Baldwin 

 Spencer, of Melbourne University. It is composed of slate, oval 

 in section, and gradually tapering to a blunt apex. The greatest 

 circumference, taken a little above the base, is 18 "4 cm., and the 

 diameters of the base are 5 cm. and 3-8 cm. 



