212 RIGHT REV. S. THORNTON, D.D., ON 



to worshippers frequenting the temple-cave, attended by 

 ivunda s, ov mmmtering spirits? May the cloth-robe suggest 

 that these drawings — occurring in a part of the continent 

 Avhere it is thought its first colonists entered Australia from 

 Asia — were executed at a very early time, before the manu- 

 facture and use of fibre-cloth (retained by their fellow- 

 emigrants who went eastward to the islands) were for- 

 gotten by the degenerate Australians? And may the 

 grease-mark on the ceiling show that in the adytum of 

 this Cave-Temple a cliorargie — chirwgien, medicine man, or 

 priest — was wont officially to sit and face the worshippers ? 



FIG. 3. 



The whole case is a "problem," and conjecture one's sole 

 resource. It would be interesting to know for certain what 

 the Aborigines of to-dtiy say and think of these caves; but 

 testimony on the point is conflicting. Some of them are said 

 to repudiate all knowledge of the origin of the drawings : 

 they were done "nnu-ry murry (that is, very very) many 

 moons (ages) ago " : and they superstitiously shun the caves 

 as fetish-places — " too much dibble dibble." Others of them 

 are said to camp in the caves without hesitation, and to claim 

 the drawings as done by their fathers. But it is plain that 

 the religions associations and reverence connected with them 

 and with their symbolism have decayed. It seems to charac- 



