304 R. H. MATHEWS, ESQ., L.S., ON 
carving, and are painted a bright colour; in other instances 
they are merely a rounded piece of wood, or a rod cut from 
the branch of a tree ; whilst a still more primitive kind are 
made of a piece of bark. Instances have been observed 
where marked pieces of bone are used in a similar manner. 
They are marked in various ways, consisting of notches, 
dots, strokes, curves; and also with triangular, quadrilateral 
and zigzag devices.* In some of the more elaborately 
carved there are rude representations of human beings, 
whilst in some tribes they are not marked at all, but consist 
merely of a plain piece of wood. “Stick letters” summon- 
ing festive gatherings are sometimes decorated with the 
down of birds, with or without other marks. In some tribes 
the wood used for making the stick must be of the same 
totemic division as the sender of the message, and the man 
who carries it must also belong to the same division. The 
marks are cut upon them with a piece of sharp stone, bone, 
or broken shell. 
These “talking sticks” appear to have been made 
according to some conventional design known among the 
tribes usmg them. One kind of stick is used for a corro- 
boree where a large number of people assemble; another 
is used to convey messages or reminders between friends 
residing at some distance from each other. A certain sort 
of stick would be used for festive gatherings; another in 
cases of sickness or death, and so on. These sticks, differ- 
ing perhaps but little in eeneral appearance, would never- 
theless be recognized by the people inhabiting the tract of 
country in which they were used, and would thus, to a 
certain extent, have a more or less fixed significance ; which 
would, however, be very much restricted unless accompanied 
by a verbal explanation by the bearer. The stick is given 
to the messenger to assist him in remembering the heads of 
the message, “by connecting them with certain pictures, 
marks, or notches cut upon it, which are explained to him 
before he sets out on his journey. The stick also serves as 
his credentials, being a confirmation or guarantee of the 
genuineness of the message. 
BULLROARERS made of wood, sometimes ornamented by 
carving on one or both sides, are used at those ceremonies 
5 - . 
where the boys are inaugurated into the rank of manhood. 
* For copies of the carvings on seven “ message sticks,” see my paper 
on that subject in The American Anthropologist, vol, x, Plate VII. 
