PICTORIAL ART AMONG THE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES. 303 
superstitions, and that the figure was regarded in the light 
of a charm.* 
Mr. Edward 8. Parker says he has witnessed ceremonies 
having resemblance to an act of worship, when the blacks 
have assembled to propitiate Mindi, an evil spirit, whose 
sole business it was to destroy. ‘They used certain pre- 
scribed ceremonies in order to appease his anger, and to 
avert death and other calamities from themselves, and to 
excite him to exercise his power for the injury or destruc- 
tion of their enemies. ‘“ Rude images,” writes Mr. Parker, 
“ consisting of one large and two small figures, cut in bark 
and painted, were set up in a secluded spot; the men, and 
afterwards the women, dressed in boughs, and having each 
a small wand, with a tuft of feathers tied on it, were made 
to dance in single file, and in a very sinuous course, towards 
the spot, and after going round it several times, to approach 
the main figure, and touch it reverentially with the wand. 
I believe this to be a relic of the ophilatria, or serpent- 
worship of India.”t 
Under date of 1875, the Rev. R. W. Holden speaks of the 
natives “cutting out an image of a man out of a sheet of 
bark, and erecting it, and dancing around it.’’} 
CARVINGS ON WOODEN IMPLEMENTS. 
The carvings under this heading comprise decorative or 
symbolical designs cut upon shields, boomerangs, womeras, 
message sticks, bullroarers, and other articles. As the 
devices on a large number of native weapons have already 
been illustrated by different writers in other publications, I 
shall not at present add a plate representing this kind of 
native art, but will refer the reader to R. B. Smyth’s 
Aborigines of Victoria, vol. 1, pp. 283-341; E. M. Curr’s 
Australian Race, vol. i, pp. 148-151. 
MESSAGE STICKS, also known as “stick letters” or “ talk- 
ing sticks,” are pieces of wood of different sizes. They are 
in some cases flat on both sides, ornamented more or less by 
* Journals of Expeditions oy Discovery into Central Australia (1845), 
vol. ii, pp. 236-238. 
t+ R. B. Smyth’s Aborigines of Victoria (1878), vol. i, p. 166. 
t Folklore, Manners, Customs, etc. of the South Australian Aborigines 
(1879), p. 26. 
