10 



THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



two, made their first acquaintance with civilisation, having just arrived from an 

 unsettled district to the north of King's Sound to participate with previously engaged 

 kinsmen, in the earnings and perquisites obtainable for their assistance in the 

 Bche-de-Mer fishery. 



The sartorial accessories of the North Australian aboriginal are not such as 

 to demand elaborate description. In addition to his " birthday suit," a polished, 

 variously engraved mother-of-pearl shell, Meleagrina, secured round his waist by a 

 girdle of twisted human hair, probably that of his wife or wives, a stick thrust 

 skewer-wise through the nasal septum, and on festal occasions, a little paint, represents 

 the alpha and the omega of his not very extensive wardrobe. Some of these shell 

 aprons, which may be regarded as an artistic antipodeal adaptation of the classic 

 fig-leaf, are somewhat elaborate in their pattern of ornamentation. Among the 



examples of these shell aprons, included 

 in the photographic figures reproduced 

 on this page, the one on the top left 

 hand corner might suggest, to the en- 

 thusiastic student of the dawn of art, 

 the prototype of the decorative pattern 

 known as the " Grecian Key." It is a 

 trite saying that extremes meet ! On 

 carefully examining between the lines in 

 this particular example, it will be ob- 

 served that small triradiate characters 

 are scattered here and there near the 

 lower edge. These must not be inter- 

 preted as the equivalent of the cuneiform 

 symbols of Ancient Nineveh, excepting 

 to the same extent as the broad arrow 

 of the British Government may be trace- 

 able to the same source. As a matter 

 of fact, these particular shell ornaments 



w. Ba.Mit-x.ent, photo. were obtained from natives belonging to 



CARVED BAOBAB NUT AND SHELL APKON8, WITH HUMAN HAIR GIRDLES, 

 K1MBERLEY DISTRICT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. ONE-FIFTH NAT. SIZE. j.^ gQ^Q^ district Of EOebUCk Bay, WllO 



have consequently added this, to them, white man's totem mark, to their own 

 repertoire. The most conspicuous character of these shell etchings, reproduced also 



