38 RED OCHRE AND ITS USE BY THE ABORIGINESa. 



" white " flint was essential, seems untenable, because 

 in this sentence a " trautta " plain and simple is used^ 

 and not a " terana vale." 



There is another consideration : all authors agree 

 that the Aborigines thought the hair clotted with ochre 

 as a great ornament — in fact, that it was the usual, ex- 

 clusive male adornment. According to Bonwick, a re- 

 bellion nearly burst out on Flinders Island, whence the 

 remnant of the Tasmanians had been removed, when 

 orders were once issued forbidding the use of ochre and 

 grease. Now, is it possible that, considering the great 

 value an Aborigine placed on his head ornament, that 

 he would have voluntarily removed it by shaving? The 

 w^omen had the hair of their head closely cropped, but 

 the men never followed this custom, at least there is 

 no record that they ever did it. It is therefore very 

 probable that Milligan's sentence, " He cuts his hair 

 with a flint," is intrinsically wrong, because there is 

 every probability that the pagga-na, the adult Abo- 

 rigine, never did such a thing either to himself or to his 

 friends. 



It further follows that the translation " to shave with 

 a flint " is also not quite correct, because the word 

 " poingha " applies to hair clotted with red ochre, there- 

 fore to a male, and not to a female, whose hair was 

 habitually cropped. 



We must therefore assume that the words 

 Poyngha — hair, clotted with red ochre. 

 Terana — flint, 

 Yale — white, 



really mean to clean (make white) the hair clotted with 

 red ochre with a flint. No doubt that such an operation 

 became necessary now and then, in order to give a fresh 

 application of the valued mixture. There is equally no 

 doubt that a good deal of the hair was involuntarily re- 

 moved during this probably painful operation, and the 

 Europeans who witnessed it thought this to be the ob- 

 ject, and not the removal of the red ochre, and in want 

 of a better word thev described it as " shaving with a 

 flint." 



