94 ON ABORIGINAL CAVE-DRAWINGS, ETC. 



demned the picture as untrue to nature had it been otherwise. 

 The man is assisted with the little end by a child which brings 

 up the rear. It may be remarked that the woman's foremost 

 leg is singularly effective and spirited. It seems as if the artist 

 had for a moment laid aside the conventionalities which evidently 

 trammel aboriginal art, and succeeded, to some extent, in 

 imitating nature. The w'oman's head is missing, probably 

 through weathering, but the man's is a thing of beauty and in 

 perfect preservation. It is adorned with ten locks, one of which 

 stands upright, while the rest stand out all round the head but 

 curve slightly upward at the extremities. 



No. 7 is in red ochre, on a vertical wall under a ledge, and 

 is 20 inches in length. It represents a man with exceptionally 

 long arms, and three fingers on each hand. One leg is unusu- 

 ally good, showing a distinct thigh and calf. The remarkable 

 feature of the painting is a four-pronged rod, resembling a 

 hghtning conductor, as long as the man's body, running straight 

 up from the top of the head. It may be some festal style of 

 hah'-dressing formerly practised by the aborigines, or it may be 

 a Chinaman's pigtail standing on end. 



No. 8 is a group or procession of animals, occurring on a 

 vertical surface beneath a ledge. The peculiarity of the position 

 is, that unless the artist stood ten feet high he must have clung 

 with one hand to a ledge two feet below his " canvas " while 

 paintmg with the other, or stood on a platform, or been sup- 

 ported by his assistants. The foremost and smallest of the 

 animals is in white clay, outlined with red ochre. The four 

 others are all in red. The first (white) animal may be a pig. 

 The second, third and fifth are unquestionably marsupials. The 

 third has long hind and short forelegs. The fourth seems to 

 me not a marsupial at all — witness the bison-like wither and 

 the hoofed feet. The projections from the head of this animal 

 I take to be horns, while those of the others are probably ears. 

 My friend Peter, I may mention, calls the whole group "pos- 

 sum," but I cannot agree with him. The enigmatical fourth 

 animal, if to be classed among cattle, is certainly not one of the 

 Palmer breed. It is just possible that the artist may have seen 

 and painted from memory one of the " bufialoes " descended 

 from the herd imported in 1824, to Melville Island, by Captani 

 Gordon Bremer. 



