58 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Mar., 1905. 



Q\ieei\sland 

 Sticks. 



Fire 



Some extremely valuable information on the Domestic Im- 

 plements, Arts, and Manufactures of the Queensland 

 natives is comprised in the Bulletin of North Queensland 

 Ethnography, which is presented to the Queensland Govern- 

 ment by Mr. Walter E. Roth, whose oflficial title is the 

 appropriate one of " Chief Protector of the Aboriginals." 



.\mong other things described by .Mr. Roth is the process 

 of making " fire-sticks," and of using them to procure fire. 

 The fire-sticks are thin wands from two to four feet in 

 length, and arc often capped with a knob of beeswax and 

 leaf or of shells. The grass tree is the one from which the 

 fire-sticks are most often cul ; and Ihe process of firing-up 

 has not changed from the days in which Captain Cook 

 described it. " They take," said Captain Cook, " two 

 pieces of dry soft wood — one is a stick, the other piece is 

 flat ; the stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end, 

 and pressing it on the other turn it nimbly by holding it 



between both their hands as we do a chocolate-mill, 

 shifting their hands up, and then moving them down on it, 

 to increase the pressure as much as possible. Bv this 

 method they get fire in less than two minutes, and from 

 the smallest spark they increase it with great speed and 

 dexterity." To make a beginning the horizontal stick niav 

 have a small excavation punched into it with a sharp stone, 

 &c., so as to give the extremity of the vertical one a firmer 

 basis of support, it being very liable otherwise to slip otT 

 the rounded edge. What with the firm downward pressure 

 and simultaneous twirling with the flats of the hands a 

 circular concavity ver\' quickly results : if a fresh one, some 

 charcoal dust may be placed in it. .As the concavity is 

 being formed the finely-triturated particles removed from it 

 collect like a miniature dust-heap •around its mouth. Piled 

 up on the underlying leaf or ground and covering over that 

 portion of the edge of the horizontal piece contiguous with 

 the excavation is a small pinch of fine dried-grass particles, 

 pith-dust, bits of the pricklv tops from the grass-tree, &c., 

 arranged in such manner as actually to touch the edge of 

 the excavation, on a windy day especially, and commonlv 

 to save labour, the pile of dried grass, &c. — the " tinder " — 

 may be led up along an artificial nick extending from the 

 excavation to the edge. .As the finely triturated dust- 

 particles from the horizontal piece become heated, 

 blackened, smoked, burnt, and removed by the simul- 

 t;ineous twirling and friction a spark forms and comes into 

 contact with the tinder; directly this takes place the latter is 

 quickly whipped up, usually with a bunch of dried grass 

 swung round and round in the air, perhaps blown on, and 

 so made to burst into flame. 



Hardly less interesting are .Mr. Roth's observations on 

 the " uses of the colours " among the aboriginals. White 

 is essentially the colour of mourning, sorrow, and tribula- 

 tion, and is met with during the ceremonies connected with 

 burial. But in some areas of the colony and among some 

 tribes it is a " fighting " colour, thus reversing in another 

 sense the practice of European nations, where the " white 

 flag " or the " white feather " have the precisely opposite 

 significance. The usual orifiamme of war, however, among 

 the natives is red. Red adorns warriors on their fighting 

 expeditions, and paints their weapons; it is also found on 

 their fire-sticks, and is even as'-ociated with magic. The 

 IBloomfield natives by holding out the red flag can ward off 

 impending danger from friendly spirits. On three rivers 

 and their hinterland, however, red is associated with death, 

 and the natives there .signify mourning by a red flower or 

 feather fixed to the forelock. Old men and women among 

 the Brisbane blacks wear red as mourning for their 

 children. Of less esoteric origin is the use of yellow. 

 Y'ellow is the colour for withstanding heat, and in the heat 

 of summer the natives cover themselves from head to foot 

 with yellow pigment. It is, as a decoration, a woman's 

 rather than a man's colour. Black is only used sparingly; 

 and on the only occasion when Mr. Roth saw natives en- 

 tirely covered with it they were representing " crows " at 

 some very high initiation ceremonies. Mr. Roth does not 

 agree with those who say that the natives possess unde- 

 veloped colour-sense or colour-vi'.ion. He ha-, found words 

 which indicate accurate subdivision of the princip.d colours. 

 White, in the sense of colour, is bilbin, dingga ; in the sense 

 of light, clear, &c., especially in the case of \\ aler, kandal ; 

 as a particular pigment, garmai. Red, in the sense of a 

 colour, is dini, and is also expressed as woba-dir, lit. with 

 the " woba " (a red pigment); in the latter case, the colour 

 is still associated with the pigment, much in the same way 

 as we speak of the terms " raddle " and " raddled." 

 Yellow is barga, the name of the particular pigment. Blue 

 is dalon ; the natives speak of purai-dalon, "water-blue," 

 to distinguish deep from shallow water. There is no name 

 for green, the existence of which colour is certainly 

 recognised, but has not been dissociated from the objects, 

 grass, leaves, with which it is ordinarily connected. Grey, 

 although recognised, is appreciated f)nly in the term for 

 grey hair (pinga) as distinguished from the normal black 

 hair (moari). Chestnut is yetchel, but applied to .animals 

 only. Auburn hair is called " moari-ngalan " or sun-hair, 

 which is not unlike our expression of " sunny ringlets." 



