DOMESTIC FURNITURE. 



15 



A small water-bag, called ' paanuung,' is formed of the pouch of the 

 kangaroo, which, when fresh, is stuffed with withered grass till it is diy. A strip 

 of skin is fixed across its mouth for a handle. 



For canying water to a distance a bag called ' kowapp ' is used. It is made 

 of the skin of a male brush or wallaby kangaroo, cut ofT at the neck and stripped 

 downwards from the body and legs, and made water-tight by ligatures. The neck 

 forms the mouth of the bag. This vessel is caiTied on the shoulders by the 

 forelegs. 



For keeping a supply of water in dry weather, a vessel called ' torrong ' — 

 ' boat' — is made of a sheet of bark stripped from the bend of a gum tree, about four 

 or five feet long, one foot deep, and one wide, in the shape of a canoe. To prevent 

 dogs drinking from it, it is supported several feet from the ground on forked 

 posts sunk in the earth. A wooden torrong is often used in the same way, and 

 is formed from a bend of a gum tree, hollowed out large enough to hold from five 

 to six gallons. As the water which they use is frequently ill-tasted, they put 

 some cones of the banksia into the torrong, in order to give a pleasant flavour 

 to its contents. 



The millstone or mortar, so indispensable to the aborigines of the interior 

 for grinding the nardoo seed, is known, but rarely met with among the natives of 

 the sea coast, becau.se they have not the nardoo, and have very little of any other 

 kind of seed to grind. They depend for food almost entirely on animals and 

 roots, which are more abundant than in the interior, where the seed of the nardoo 

 occasionally forms the chief sustenance of the aborigines. 



There are two kinds of millstones, both formed of slabs of grey marble or 

 grey slate, of an oval shape, eighteen inches long by twelve inches broad. One 

 kind is hollowed out, like a shallow basin, to a depth of two inches ; the seed is put 

 into it, and ground with a flat stone of the same material as the mortar. The other 

 kind is about the same size, but, instead of being basin-shaped, it is flat, and has 

 two parallel hollows, each one foot long, five inches broad, and one inch deep, in 

 which the seed is placed and reduced to floiu- by two flat stones, held one in each 

 hand, and rubbed backwards and forwards. 



While travelling, the natives always carry burning pieces of the dry thick 

 bark of the eucalyptus tree, to light their fires with, and to show the paths at 

 night ; but, as these might be extinguished while they are far from any fire, 

 implements for producing combustion are indispensable. These consist of the 

 thigh bone of a kangaroo, ground to a long fuie point, and a piece of the dry 



