14 THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



the Malay Archipelago, whence doubtless it was originally communicated to North 

 Queensland. 



In the Kimberley district of Western Australia, fire is also produced through 

 the friction of two pieces of wood, but on a different principle. The main portion 

 of the apparatus consists of a dry piece of wood about eighteen inches long, such 

 as the butt of a eucalyptus sapling. This is split down for some six inches at 

 its naiTOwer end, a wedge of wood is inserted to keep the split edges apart, and 

 within this cleft a tuft of fine dry grass is fixed. The thin edge of the split half 

 of a second shorter piece of dry wood is now rapidly rubbed across the grass-holding 

 portion of the first one, as in the action of filing or fiddling. ' Within a few minutes 

 fire is produced, which ignites the accompanying tuft of grass, and is further developed 

 as in the preceding case. 



It is, perhaps, worthy of note that these mechanical methods of generating fire 

 are but seldom resorted to. When the fire has been once established, it becomes the 

 duty of the women, after the manner of the classic " Vestal Virgins," to maintain the 

 flame unquenched, and, during migrations, to carry lighted fire-sticks with them. In 

 all except the few remaining absolutely unsettled districts, moreover, the fire instruments 

 produced by Bryant and May, and their compeers, have well-nigh superseded the 

 primitive native methods. 



The conventional " place aux dames " has been gallantly conceded to the 

 Australian aboriginal women-folk in the form of a corner illustration in the opening 

 page of this Chapter. Compared with their dusky lords deployed in martial statuesque 

 attitudes immediately above them, they scarcely present a pleasing contrast. Being in 

 point of fact, as is generally the case among the lower races of humanity, the mere 

 slaves and drudges of their lieges, it is but little to be wondered at that at an early 

 date after emerging from childhood they lose, as viewed from a European stand- 

 point, all of such little comeliness and attractiveness as they may have originally 

 possessed. The most notable, though by no means the most handsome, figure in the 

 group occupies the second place on the left. It represents a widow whose recent 

 bereavement is attested to by the special pattern of her coiffeur, her normally matted 

 hair being subdivided into pendant ringlets that are separately stiffened with rolls 

 of moistened clay. 



The illustration added as a tail-piece to this Chapter, may be most appropriately 

 referred to on this page. It is the photographic replica of a hollow wooden cradle, 

 such as is customarily used by the native women of the Kimberley district of Western 



