Aboriginal Wooden Weapons of Australia. 35 



man which has curtailed and even caused the relinquishment of 

 many old routes. 



The articles of most general barter included weapons and tools 

 of all kinds, and the materials for their manufacfture and repair. 

 These latter consisted of chips of quartz and other hard rocks, and 

 gum-cement, the best quality of which was obtained from a tree 

 confined to favored districts. Colored pigments for decorating 

 weapons and for mixing with fat to anoint the body at ceremonies, 

 feathers, nets, and occasionally wives were also bartered. 



The decoration employed by the Australian upon his imple- 

 ments is elementary in design and often crude, awkward and un- 

 finished in expression. The highest standard of decoration is 

 found in the north and west, where probably Malay and Papuan 

 influence is felt. The ornamentation of the products of these re- 

 gions is often simple and effe(fl:ive. The general low standard of 

 artistic taste of the whole race is well exemplified by the brutal 

 method of tatuing employed, which consists of ugly parallel cica- 

 trices scored upon the chest and back. The most simple decora- 

 tion of the weapons consists of a colored design, often not more than 

 parallel bars, painted upon a uniform ground of red or black. 

 Occasionally the ground is omitted, or the ornamentation may 

 merely consist of this alone. 



Upon shields, and some boomerangs and clubs, the design is 

 often incised and the interstices filled with ochreous pigments. 

 A common form of such cutting is found chiefly upon certain 

 boomerangs which are completely covered on both sides with 

 roughly parallel grooving, produced by scoring deeply with a Ipone 

 or quartz chisel. Weapons bearing such decoration are invariably 

 colored entirely red or black, and have a not unpleasing effect. 

 A much narrower instrument is employed to groove the scrolls 

 and other designs upon boomerangs and shields. Another and 

 deeper form of incision, found chiefly upon shields, is produced 

 with a narrow chisel held at right angles to the surface to be cut, 

 and not in the manner as in grooving. By this means an irreg'ular 

 line is produced which gives an effective waving appearance to the 

 design. These three methods of incision will be seen by reference 

 to the shields illustrated in Plate I. 



The designs most commonly met with include parallel lines 

 arranged in rectilineals, convergent lines, triangles, squares, the 



[175] 



