Irti ITKllIKi; NOIKS ON lIAitll'S (IK TAS.MAMAN A I!i Mill ;I N KS. 



with another stone till desired result was produced. This 

 is unquestionably indicated by the two large " inortars " in 

 which the concavity has been produced by grinding the 

 stone with another one of globular shape. 



As a contribution towards the psychology oi the Tas- 

 inanians, the fact that they liad, at least, a rudimentary 

 knowledge of the operation of grinding is of the greatest 

 inijiortance. The question may well be raised, if the 

 operation of grinding was known to thcnij why did they 

 not use it to imjjrove the tero-watta, but limited it strictly 

 to the sacred stones ? The aborigine who ground and 

 polished the specimen (PI. XVIT.) was, apparently, quite 

 aware that he improved it. Under these circumstances it 

 is more than surprising — I always speak from the point of 

 the modern mind — that it never struck him to apply the 

 same process to a tero-watta. It might be argued that 

 the material of the tero-watta was too hai^d for grinding. 

 This is by no means the case, as I have proved by experi- 

 ment. Chert or hornstone is easily ground and polished 

 on sandstone; in fact, almost easier than diabase. This 

 proves, in my opinion, that the difficulty of grinding a hard 

 rock cannot have been the reason why the tero-watta were 

 never ground. 



The rea-son must have been quite a different one. The 

 aborigines were not above a certain logical reasoning, as is 

 proved by the production of red ochre (3). But, on the 

 other hand, they were ab.solutely incapable of conceiving 

 new ideas for the improvement of their implements. This 

 has been amply demonstrated by- the peculiar tero-watta 

 described in a previous paper (4). If they could not make 

 such a simple invention as to continue the trimming of the 

 whole edge on both faces, it is not very probable that they 

 applied a process, Avhich was restricted to the "sacred" 

 stones for the improvement of the tero-watta. 



There may, however, be another, perhaps, more 

 weightier reason still. I have shown that the sacred stones 

 must in all probability be considered as specimens connect- 

 ed with certain rites or religious notions (5). It may be 

 possible that an operation which was used in the produc- 



es) Rpd Ochre and Its use hv the Aborigines of Tasmania. Pap and 

 Proceed. Hoyal Society Tas.. 1909, page 30. 



(4) A Peculiar Group of Tronattas. Pap. and Proceed. Rov. Soc. Tas., 

 1909, p'lgo 1. 



(5) Some Implements of the Tasmanian Aborigines. Tlie Tasmanian 

 Naturalist, vol. I, No. 3, 1907. 



