30 



MEMOISS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



au acknowledged fact that the native can generally tell whether a stick belongs 

 to " his country" or not, and is, I fancy, an indication that there was a time, 

 probably not so very remote, when there was a greater persistency of type in 

 definite districts. 



We have a number of other message sticte in our collections, but these 

 being of quite modern manufacture are not of much importance ; they are made 

 mostly of a very light wood and are ochred in red. They contain a whole host 

 of marks evidently worked in according to the fertile imagination of the maker, 

 and I should say were only made for trade purposes or in some cases by special 

 request, and can therefore not be said to have any real ethnological value. The 

 markings consist mostly of a series of narrow lines encircling the stick, and 

 in some instances crossing and re-crossing one another; in one specimen. Q.E. 

 16/931, a crescent-shaped figure is evidently intended to represent the sun, with 

 lines radiating from it. This stick measures IDl mm. x 17 nun., and comes from 

 Burketown (donor, J. N. Maclntyre). 



Two sticks referred to and figured by Banfield (1) (Q.E. 16/897 and 

 Q.E. 16/898), are also in our collection. 



Northern Territory — 



W 



Text-figure 24. 



A message stick fioTii the Northern Territory. 

 (Xo. Q.E. \')/\'.>:]; 112 iiini. .\ i:', nun. x lU mm.) 



This stick was obtained by Hishoj) White (when HislKip of ('ari)entaria) 

 on the Daly watei-s, and donated iiy biin to the Queensland Museum. Its interest 

 lii-s in the fact that, ju.st as the Bisliop was leaving Darwin by coach, an aboriginal 

 boy brought this stick to the driver and asked him to deliver it to another blackboy 

 at Daly waters uitli tliis nn'ssage : 



" Want 'em pri'tty fellow alonga head, boomei-ang. " 



Bislioj) White was .so interested in the matter that he undertook to 

 deliver the .stick, but withheld the verbal ines.sage until be had satislied liim.self 

 that the receiver ol' the message had some knowledge of what the stick was 



