NOTE ON A QUEENSLAND ABORIGINAL DRILL. 



By WALTER E. ROTH. 



Rmrl hrfni-f flie Hoyal Socu'ty of Queensland, Decevihcr 11, 1897. 



In view of tho fact that considerable doubt has been expressed 

 among English anthropologists as to the employment of drilling 

 among the Australian aboriginals, it may be of interest to draw- 

 attention to a form of drill which I met with on a recent visit to 

 the Keppol Islands. It is composed of a piece of Avhite quartz 

 fixed with fibre wedged into the split extremity of a piece of 

 grass-tree peduncle, about 24 inches long. The Big Keppel 

 ( Wapnhnra ) Islanders speak of the quartz as hoo-ran, tho fibre as 

 mn, and the portion of peduncle which gives the name to the 

 whole implement, nil-la. The quartz is ground more or less on 

 a hard stone to obtain the necessary pointed shape. When in use, 

 the implement is held vertically down, and twirled backwards and 

 forward Ijetween the flats of the two hands, just like the common 

 variety of hre-stick. It is employed for piercing shell, etc., in the 

 making of fore-head circlets, and for piercing cocoa-nut or turtle- 

 shell in the manufacture of fish-hooks. 



I have already referred, in " Ethnological Studies among 

 the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines," p. 149, to the 

 employment of " drilling" by means of an emu, or kangaroo- 

 bone, in the manufacture of " roarers," certain forms of 

 Avomuiera, and in the piercing of the melo, etc., shell ornaments. 



