PEOBLEMS OP ABORIGINAL ART IN AUSTRALIA. 231 



Since my paper was read I have met with, two documents which 

 bear so directly on its topic, that I greatly regret not having seen 

 them earlier, and feel bound to avail myself of an opportunity of 

 commending them to hearers or readers of my paper who have 

 become interested hi the Austi^alian cave-drawings. 



One of the documents referred to is a paper read June 4th, 1896, 

 before the Royal Society of Victoi'ia, Australia, by Rev. John 

 Mathews, M.A., B.D., on " An Aboriginal Rock Painting in the 

 Victoria Ranges," in my diocese. It is a reprint from the Transac- 

 tions of that Society", and probably may be had from Ford & Son, 

 printers, Carlton, Melbourne. The painting was discovered in 

 1866, but looks as fresh to-day as when first seen. It was known 

 to the local aborigines from childhood, but they can give no 

 account, of its authorship or date. It exhibits different features of 

 aboriginal life, and illustrates the drawings described in my 

 paper by showing the symbol of the conventional- shaped heart, 

 the impression of the human hand, human figures with tapering 

 extremities, and with parts severed from the trunk (apparently in 

 this case by obliteration) : while in a corner of the cave were 

 found fragments of dark-red sandstone which had evidently been 

 used in the drawings. One inexplicable figure bears a distinct re- 

 semblance to the extraordinary sack-like form, with i-ayed head 

 and protuberances on one side, encircling an armless human body, 

 discussed in my paper. I^ot far from the rock-face were found 

 stones which had evidently been used as scaffolding for reaching 

 the high levels of the drawing, and afterwards removed, which 

 may explain how the loftier drawings mentioned in my paper 

 were executed. 



The other document is a paper by the same author, in which the 

 ray-crowned bust, and the draped figure with inscription on the 

 turban, discussed in my paper, are examined, and the theory 

 bi'oached that the former is the Hindu Siva, and the latter Siva's 

 consort, Parvati (Kali, or Devi), portrayed by immigrants from 

 Sumatra. This is supported by quotations from the Batahsli- 

 Nederdnitsch Woordenboek and Les Mamcscrits Lamponcs of H. X. 



a special chart of the distribution of the various races therein, by Rev. 

 S. J. Whitmee, vol. xiv ; " The Samoan Tradition of the Creation," 

 with notes on the Islands, by the Rev. T. Powell, F.L.S., vol. xx ; 

 " The Aborigines of Australia, their ethnic position and relations," bv 

 J. Eraser, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S. (N.S.W.), vol. xxii. 



