GEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS — ETHBRIDGE. 53 



The figures are either composed of riglit lines or curves, more 

 commonly the former, but a few instances have been recorded of 

 natural objects, such as the outline of an Emu's foot, seen by 

 Leichhardt on a gum tree in the Gulf Country.* One thing is 

 self-evident, such carvings possessed a dual if not a triple 

 significance. We have already seen the employment of them to 

 indicate an interment, presumably acting the part of a tomb- 

 stone, for it is believed by some that the figures on a tree in 

 each case correspond to those on the inner side of deceased's 

 'possum rug, the inombarai, or "drawing," which Fraser thinks 

 was distinctive in each family, or a peculiar modification of the 

 tribal moinharai.'\ So far as 1 can gather, such devices invariably 

 indicated the last resting-place of a male. Mr. E. M. Curr 

 statesj that the Breeaba Tribe, at the head-waters of the 

 Burdekin River, North Queensland, employed marked tiees to 

 commemorate a battle. He figures a tree from the banks of the 

 Diamantina, barked and marked by a series of close, irregularly 

 super-imposed notches, like those made by a Black when climVjing 

 a tree. These, however, can hardly be compared to carvings. 



According to Mr. J. Henderson, Dr. John Fraser, Mr. A. 

 W. Howitt, and Mr. Macdonald previously mentioned. Bora 

 Grounds are also embellished with carved trees. The first-named 

 describes 1^ the approach to one of these initiation places at 

 Wellington as through "a long, straight, avenue of trees, extend- 

 ing for about a mile, and these were carved on each side with 

 various devices. . . At the lower extremity of this, a narrow path- 

 way turned off towards the left, and soon terminated in a circle." 

 Mr. Henderson further remarks that the fact of the use of this place 

 for Bora purposes was communicated to him by the then head- 

 man of the tribe. Dr. Fraser says|| that the Gringai Tribe, one 

 of the northern N.S. Welsh tribes, clear two circular enclosures, 

 one within the other, for their Bora, and that the trees growing 

 around the smaller circle are carved " with curious emblematical 

 devices and figures"; whilst Mr. Macdonald informs us that on 

 the Bora ground of the Page and Isis River Natives, as many 

 as a hundred and twenty marked trees occur round about.H 

 Confirmation is further aftbrded by Mr. W. 0. Hodgkinson, who 

 saw a Bora ground on the Macleay River with "trees minutely 

 tatooed, and carved to such a considerable altitude that he 



*Journ. Overland Exped. Moreton Bay to Port Essington, 1847, 

 p. 356. 



t Journ. K. Soc. N.S. Wales for 1892 [1893], xvi., p. 201. 



X The Australian Eace, 1886, ii., p. 433. 



§Obs. Colonies of N.S. Wales and V.D. Land, 1832, p. 145, pi. 3. 



II Journ. E. Soc. N.S. Wales for 1882 [1883] xvi., p. 205. 



IF Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit. Ireland, 1878, vii., p. 256. 



