126 R. H. MATHEWS. 



the first circle to the sacred one, the latter being represented as 

 the larger of the two ; although at p. 16 he speaks of the " smaller 

 or sacred circle," — this being the description which his plan, facing 

 that page, is supposed to illustrate. 



Last Christmas time I visited a Bora ground near Wilpinjong 

 Creek, in the Parish of Wilpinjong, County of Phillip, and took 

 accurate measurements and bearings. In that instance the direc- 

 tion from the larger circle to the small one on some rising ground 

 is S. 35° W., and the distance between them is seventeen chains. 

 The track is not straight, and winds about as shown on Plate 4, 

 fig. 4, following along the top of a spur which runs in the direction 

 mentioned. The larger circle which was on sandy soil was almost 

 obliterated, but I gathered that its diameter was about fifty feet. 

 The small circle which is on a gravelly, well wooded ridge, is fairly 

 well preserved. What appears to have been intended for the 

 representation of a human figure on a very large scale is formed 

 on the ground by means of raised earth, and is in the attitude 

 assumed by blackfellows when dancing the corroboree.* The body 

 is fifteen feet long, ten feet wide, and two feet six inches high 

 now, but was probably higher at the time it was used by the 

 blacks. The arms are about twenty-four feet long ; and the legs 

 which would be twenty-six feet long if straight, are bent in such a 

 manner as to enclose an oval space twenty-six feet by twenty-two 

 feet, the heels approaching to within about four feet of each other. 

 The space thus enclosed by the legs was used as the smaller or 

 sacred circle of the Bora ground, and the track leading to the large 

 circle emerged from between the heels. There are a few marked 

 trees still standing around this figure and along the track, and 

 the devices upcn them are of the ordinary kind appearing at these 

 places. Mr. Wm. Carr, who was with me, and who has resided 



* As stated at p. 101 of this paper, Henderson mentions a " gigantic 

 human figure " as being moulded in the soil at one end of the Bora 

 ground visited by him, which was perhaps such a figure as I am now 

 describing. On one of the Bora grounds described by Ridley, quoted by 

 me at p. 104, there was a rude figure of a man, twenty-two feet long, 

 formed of sticks covered with earth. — Anthr. Journ., vn., p. 255. 



