112 Records of the S.A. Museum 



it bears the same name with the addition nf the suffix "ni" or "ri," which 

 indicates "direction towards." 



Tlic Toas are used in tlie fnllowinn; \\-ay : when a native is al)oni to 

 break cam]i and move to some other place he makes a Toa representing- the 

 hicabty to which he is mo\-ins- and sticks its jiointed end into the earth at 

 the cam]) aljout to lie left; signs are also made on the oronnd to call attention 

 to its presence. In this way the friends of the departing nati\'e, who recog- 

 nize the significance of the Toa, are made aware of the place to which he 

 has gone. 



The Toas are rather ronghly made, as if intended to serve onh- a tem- 

 porary pur]>ose. In size they mostly fall within length limits of six to 

 eighteen inches, thongh a few are longer, and one (No. 1) is over five feet. 

 In constrnction they mostly consist i)f a ]iiece of natnral or artificially flat- 

 tened wood, jjiiinted at one end. and either colonred, or plastered o\-er with 

 white clay which itself may be colonred uniformly or marked with simple 

 designs. .\t the np])er end the cla_\' is frei|uently moulded into a sjjherical or 

 oval knol), and this also may be plain or \ari(iusl\- coloured, or ha\e inserted 

 some object tyi)ical of the locality or s\nil)olical nf a Afnrannn-a's adventure, 

 such as a tuft of grass, twigs, feathers, hair, etc., pieces of bone, charcoal, or a 

 model of some weajion or utensil. In a considerable number of Toas the 

 upper end is modelled into a rejiresentation of some jiart of the human body 

 such as the head, hand, or foot, or into that of the whole or some ]iart of a 

 bird, fish, or other animal. .Ml these details as well as the forms, colours, 

 ]5atterns, and a])pen(lages of the Toas have reference to the physical features 

 of the places the\' represent, or to the e\-ents that occurred there during the 

 wanderino's of the AInramuras. 



DESCRIPTION OF the TOAS. 



1. DAKARAWITJARINI (Diari Tribe). This re|)resents a place 

 called Dakara\\itjari, the terminal "ni" indicating "to" or "in the direction of," 

 and the Toa therefore gi\es the information that the n.atives have gone to 

 the localit^• of that name. The word means a hard fiat, or jilain, where I'-mns 

 rmi to and fro, and it originates from the legend of the Muramura, Ngurakar- 

 lina, who, coming to the jilace, saw many of these birds running altout. 



The longitudinal, \'ertical, and partly sinuous black stri])t' on the Toa, 

 represents a salt creek, the o\-;il jiatch being a deep waterhole, and the lateral 

 branches tributary creeks. Surrounding these is the plain where the lunus 



