RED OCHRE AND ITS USE BY THE 

 ABORIGINES OF TASMANIA. 

 (PLATE IV.) ^ 



By Fritz Noetling, M.A., Ph.D., etc. 

 (Read Alay 3rd, 1909.) 



There is "hardly an account of the Aborigines of Tas- 

 mania in which the use of red ochre is not mentioned. 

 Captain Cook, in the description of his third voyage, 

 already states that the Aborigines smeared their hair 

 and beard with, a mixture of grease and red ochre. Later 

 observers who came in contact wath the Aborigines 

 noticed the same. The old oil paintings in our Museum 

 represent the male Aborigines as wearing a kind of red 

 wig", composed of long corkscrew-like ringlets (i). We 

 may therefore take it as granted that it was a favourite 

 custom with the Aborigines to rub a mixture of grease 

 -and red ochre into the bair ; and further, that this custom 

 was strictly limited to the males. Nowhere is it men- 

 tioned that the females followed the same habit, though 

 they frequently painted their face black with charcoal. 

 The hair clotted with red ochre was strictly a male 

 adornment, and it is very probable that the custom of 

 the females wearing their hair closely cropped resulted 

 from the desire to prevent them following the example 

 of their masters. 



When examining the camping grounds my attention 

 was soon drawn to pieces of red iron ore lying about, 

 ■and, after collecting a number, I noticed that several 

 exhibited intensive signs of being used. The first speci- 

 mens I found on the camping ground. Old Beach; 

 others I found near Melton-Mowbray, Devonport, etc. ; 

 but the largest number and the largest piece I found 

 near Baskerville and Winton, on the Macquarie River. 



(i) This is most conspicuous in the painting representing a 

 group of Aborigines now in the Launceston ^luseum. All the 

 males have the hair clotted with red ochre, while the females 

 wear it closely cropped and in its natural colour. 



