40 AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL STONE WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS, 



a transversely elongated pebble, two and a half inches long.* The 

 angles of these stones are all well rounded, and they had evidently 

 undergone considerable attrition before selection for their abori- 

 ginal use. The longest diameter of the largest is two and a half 

 inches. Touching these stones, Mr. Blomfield makes the following 

 remarks in his letter accompanying them : — "The specimens were 

 obtained by my brother from an old blackfellow at Mount Mitchell, 

 Eastern New England, who told him that they had belonged to the 

 last ' medicine man ' of the tribe, and as he was the last represen- 

 tative, and not a ' doctor,' he had no use for them, and seemed 

 rather glad at being relieved of their charge. He told my brother 

 on no account to let any blackfellow know that he had given them 

 to him. I know that the ' medicine men ' in all the tribes carry 

 these stones and attach great importance to them, never showing 

 them to a white man. I have been told by the blacks that if a gin 

 dared to look at them, she would be instantly killed. They pretend 

 to work all sorts of cures with these stones, and I believe they are 

 never shown except at their Bora meetings. These are the only 

 ones I ever saw, except once, when an old 'medicine man' was 

 doctoring one of my black boys, and pretended to suck one out of 

 his head. I believe they descend from father to son, and those I 

 send you have most likely been in use for generations. The blacks 

 always carry them in a small dilly-bag under the arm, together with 

 the bones of dead relatives." 



xiv. — Gouge. 

 (PI. v., fig. 6.) 

 Gouges, such as the specimen exhibited, and sometimes called 

 chisels, seem now to be very rare, and little has been written on 

 them. The present specimen, from " Northern Queensland," was 

 forwarded by Mr. De Vis, and also forms a portion of the Queens- 

 land Museum Collection. It appears to me that the term gouge 

 is preferable to that of chisel, and such will be here adopted. The 

 late R. Brough Smyth saysf that this implement is " formed of a 



* According to Smyth, some of the white toe£-stones carried by the 

 Victorian "Doctors" are called Warra-goop. {Aborigines of Victoria, 

 1878, i., p. 464.) 



t Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I., p. 379, f. 199. 



