BY FKJTZ MOETJ.INU, Al.A., PH.D. 87 



Tasmania, and which yields a very strong iibre. Bunco 

 stated that they were made of the leaves of Anthoricum semi- 

 bai'bala, as well as Dianella. That may be so, but no 

 specimen made of these plants has come under my exam- 

 ination ; those in the Hobarfc Museum are all made of 

 Juneus-fibre, as has already been noticed by Ling Roth 

 (25). 



The baskets are very strong, and even now, though 

 years have p.-ssed since they were made, they are very 

 elastic, instead of being brittle, as might be expected after 

 this long time. 



It is difficult to say how the baskets were carried ; most 

 of those that are in the Hohai't Museum havei a short string 

 of twisted grass' tied at two opposite points of the basal 

 ring. This would indicate that they, were carried bv the 

 hand and not on a long string across the shoulder. If they 

 had been carried this way, the longer string would have 

 again to be tied to the shorter string, an assumption which 

 is not very probable. 



We practically know nothing about the manufacture of 

 the baskets, though several of the early explorers watched 

 the operatio'n. Bonwick says that he watched a woman 

 making some string, and the chief point of his observation 

 is, that the woman "began tci twist the threads by rolling 

 the material up and down her thigh." The strands of 

 which the baskets are plaited look exactly as if they had 

 b?en rolled in such a way. 



The baskets were pi'incipally used to bring up shell 

 fish collected at the bottom of the sea, and to carry the same 

 afterwards to the camping grounds. It is vei-y probable 

 that chiefly the larger baskets were used for such a purpose, 

 because the smaller ones ha.rdly contained enough room for 

 even a small quantity of oysters or haliotis. They were pro- 

 bably also used to collect the raw material (pebbles) for the 

 manufacture of tero-na-wattas, or to carry to the camping 

 grounds suitable specimens that were obtained at the quar- 

 ries. To me it seems probable that the smaller ones were 

 used to carry the tero-watta that were in use for the time 

 being, as well as the material required to make fire- 

 In the 1st edition of the Aborigines of Tasmania, Ling 

 Roth figur'is on PI. I and PI. II., two baskets said to be of 



(25) Aborigines of Tasmania, 2ncl ed., page 144. 



