BY E. ETHERIDGE, JUN. 371 



size of a cricket ball, carried in a small net suspended from the 

 girdle, and called mur-ra-mai. By the Sydney blacks such 

 stones were known as krardgee-kibba, or Doctor stone ; by the 

 Yass, Murrumbidgee, and Tumut Aborigines, they were termed 

 merudagalle. * In the Murrumbidgee tribes the stones are said 

 by Mr. J. Manning! to decend from father to son, and to give 

 semi-divine authority. According to Dr. John Fraser | similar 

 pieces of rock crystal were used in the ceremony of the Bora, one 

 or more pieces being given to the bombat or novice. This took 

 place in the Yuin tribe on the S.E. coast. 



The specimen now in my hands was obtained by Mr. George 

 Sweet, of Brunswick, Melbourne, at Cooktown. The use of these 

 talismanic stones so far north is already known, Leichhardt having 

 recorded their use on the Lynd River.§ Mr. Sweet's specimen 

 consists of a compound prismatic crystal of quartz, frosted and 

 opaque at the base, but clear towards the apices of the pyramids, 

 and more or less transparent. It measures three and a half inches 

 in length, is one and a half inches in diameter, and weighs four 

 and a half ounces. This quite equals in size the stone described by 

 the Rev. Dr. Turner, Bishop of Grafton and Armidale,|| obtained 

 from a dilly-bag at Armidale, measuring 3|- in. x 1|- in. x 3 in. ; or 

 the still larger egg-shaped stone described by SmythH from Gipps- 

 land, four inches in length, and two and a half in breadth, and 

 called bulk. The almost universal use of these talismanic stones 

 throughout Australia is a point of great interest. 



ix. — PigmeiU Ochres from the Lennard River, King's Sound, 



N. W. Australia. 



The colours formerly employed by the Aboriginals in the orna- 

 mentation of their weapons and im[)lements, and adornment of 



* Bennett, " Wanderings in Australia," 1834, I., p. 191. 

 t Journ. R. Soc. N. S. Wales for 1882 [1883], XVI., p. 161. 

 X Journ. R. Soc. N. S. Wales for 1882 [1883], XVI., p. 207. 

 § "Journal of an Overland Expedition in Australia from Moreton Bay 

 Port Essington," 1847, p. 270, 



II Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales for 1885 [1886], X., pt. 2, p. 188. 

 H " Aborigines of Victoria^" 1878, L, p. 386. 



