PROBLEMS OP ABORIGINAL ART IN AOSTRALIA. 215 



red, and black, which the old men of the place emphatically 

 declare had meanings once, long- lost to later generations. 



Similar drawings in vast numbers are fonnd in the north- 

 east and centre of Australia. In one case was found a shield 

 with the Roman V and I painted on it: in another the 

 picture of a man with a broad tail : in another a colossal 

 frog, jumping. 



At Buckland's tableland, Central Queensland, on the banks 

 of the Nardoo Creek, is a high cliff on the face of which, 

 under a projecting ledge of rock, and 21 feet at bottom from 

 the highest foothold, is a magnificent representation some 

 70 feet across, covering 500 square feet, in red, blue, white 

 and yellow, of a lake of sulphurous fire, out of Avhich are 

 stretched hundreds of dusky arms, life-size, in every 

 conceivable position, the muscles knotted, and the hands 

 grasping convulsively, or pointing heavenwards. 



They are faithful in an anatomical point of view : every 

 joint is seen, and looks alive : the hands are like those of the 

 blacks, and some of the fingers are bent back, as the blacks 

 can bend them. The natives of to-day have a horror of this 

 place, and say neither their fathers nor they know anything 

 of the origin of the picture. Does it represent a volcanic 

 eruption, such as long ago may have occurred in Australia ; 

 or was it suggested by teachings about Hell ? 



An immense number of representations of the human hand 

 are found : many are red in colour — the red hand, I believe, 

 being found all over India and other countries, as well as 

 in the scutcheon of our baronets ! Frequently they seem 

 impressions of hands dipped in pigment : but in many cases 

 the hand is done in splash-work, pigment having been 

 squirted over it, leaving a blank pattern behind. This would 

 account for the hand being mostly the left, and pointing 

 upwards, very seldom downwards, — as that would be the 

 most natural and convenient method in doing the Avork. 

 The hands are found on almost inaccessible cliffs. 



One group inside a small cave appears to record a combat, 

 or hand-hunting expedition. It would seem to read "theie 

 were four boomerangs (fighters) : we cut off" six pairs of hands." 

 Another picture shows four red hearts — wonderfully well 

 outlined — pierced by black spears. 



I now exhibit some most extraordinary paintings in caves 

 and recesses on the Regent's River, which I cannot possibly 

 explain. They are in red, black, brown, yellow, white, and 

 pale blue ; and in some cases have manifestly been used on 



