396 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL NOTES, 
The crows fattened rapidly on the moths and were also highly 
prized as food. They were consequently much pursued by the 
nath es during their bugonging pic-nics. 
The fine nets made of kurrajong fibre mentioned above seem 
to have been especially designed for the purpose of collecting the 
ong." They had very fine meshes and were manufactured 
with great care, and being attached to a couple of poles they 
could be readily folded up when they had to be withdrawn from 
the crevices. A shrub, ( Pimelia sp.) growing abundantly in 
places by the river sides to a height of three to four feet, furnished 
the fibre. The bark of this bush was stripped and allowed to dry, 
was then placed in water, and weighted down with some stones 
for several days till the non-fibrous portions were partly rotted. 
It was then taken out of the water and spread in the sun to 
dry till it was quite crisp, after which the fibre was freed by 
beating with sticks or flat stones. All this was the women's work, 
and they managed to produce a tenacious material from it 
that could be spun into the finest threads.* 
They kindled fire by friction, and for this purpose procured two 
pieces of the seed stalk of the grass tree ( X author rlicea ). One of 
the pieces was flattened and laid on the ground, and the other, 
pared to a point, was pressed against the flattened surface and 
rapidly twirled between the flat hands. The friction soon 
produced sufficient heat to cause some of the fine particles that 
were loosened by the rotatory motion at the point of contact to 
glow, which was, with the addition of some powdered charcoal 
and dry pounded bark fibre, fanned into a flame. 
* Among the white people of Australia the name kurrajong is applied to 
a tree (Brachy chiton), but the natives in most parts give it a different name 
and say that kurrajong is white fellow name. It seems to me that the tree 
obtained its name through a misunderstanding because it yields a fibre that 
is frequently used by aborigines for making nets. This fibre is called 
kurrajong by some natives, which seems to have led to the name being 
applied to the tree. On the other hand, as the Omeo blacks called their 
bush as well as the fibre kurrajong, such may possibly be the case with 
the Brachychiton tree in some tribal dialects. 
