34 RED OCHRE AND ITS USE BY THE ABORIGINES. 



The operation of shaving by means of a flint is here 

 unqitestionably expressed b}' two words, and it rather 

 seems a puzzle to find an explanation for this. If we, 

 however, write the second expression in the following 

 way — 



Po_vngha-terana-yale, 

 this problem takes at once a different shape. Terana is 

 undoubtedly the word teroona-trona-trowa, which we 

 know stands for stone implement (flint). 



The verbal translation is therefore 



Poyngha — ^Hair, matted with red ochre. 

 Terana — Flint. 

 Yale— (?). 



That is to say, the hair matted with red ochre (is re- 

 moved by means of a) flint. It would be very simple if 

 the still doubtful word " yale " would represent the verb, 

 and simply mean " cut " or " removed," but this inter- 

 pretation is more than doubtful, because yale occurs 

 rather in a peculiar way in connection with other words, 

 which make such a conjecture untenable. In conjunc- 

 tion with the words " noan," " loan," — "' stone," it must 

 represent a particular kind of stone, and the question is, 

 will we be able to fix on its meaning? 



We know that the Northern and North-western 

 tribes called the freestone ponin-galee ; we have there- 

 fore 



Loan-yale, 



Ponin-galee, 



Terana-yale, 



and this seems to indicate that the " poingha " was 

 shaved wifh a particular kind of flint, the " terana-yale," 

 and if we were able to translate the word " yale," not 

 ■only would we hav'e explained the meaning of the words 

 in question, but we would have ascertained a further 

 most important point, namely, that the shaving the 

 matted hair was done with a special kind of flint. 



We find that under the heading freestone the follow- 

 ing words occur: — 



Eastern Tribes — Boatta or potha malleetye. 



Southern Tribes — Potta mallya. 



North and Western Tribes — Ponin galee. 



