GEOLOGICAL AND ETHNOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS — ETHERIDGE. 53 
The figures are either composed of right lines or curves, more 
commonly the former, but a few instances have been recorded of 
natural objects, such as the outline of an Emu’s foot, seen by 
Leichhardt on a gum tree in the Gulf Country.* * * § One thing is 
self-evident, such carvings possessed a dual if not a triple 
significance. We have already seen the employment of them to 
indicate an interment, presumably acting the part of a tomb- 
stone, for it is believed by some that the figures on a tree in 
each case correspond to those on the inner side# of deceased’s 
’possum rug, the mombarai , or “drawing,” which Fraser thinks 
was distinctive in each family, or a peculiar modification of the 
tribal mombarai . f So far as 1 can gather, such devices invariably 
indicated the last resting-place of a male. Mr. E. M. Curr 
states^ that the Breeaba Tribe, at the head- waters of the 
Burdekin River, North Queensland, employed marked tiees to 
commemorate a battle. He figures a tree from the banks of the 
Diamantina, barked and marked by a series of close, irregularly 
super-imposed notches, like those made by a Black when climbing 
a tree. These, however, can hardly be compared to carvings. 
According to Mr. J. Henderson, * Dr. John Fraser, Mr. A. 
W. Howitt, and Mr. Macdonald previously mentioned, Bora 
Grounds are also embellished with carved trees. The first-named 
describes § the approach to one of these initiation places at 
Wellington as through “a long, straight, avenue of trees, extend- 
ing for about a mile, and these were carved on each side with 
various devices. . . At the lower extremity of this, a narrow path- 
way turned off towards the left, and soon terminated in a circle.” 
Mr. Henderson further remarks that the fact of the use of this place 
for Bora purposes was communicated to him by the then head- 
man of the tribe. Dr. Fraser says|| that the Gringai Tribe, one 
of the northern N.S. Welsh tribes, clear two circular enclosures, 
one within the other, for their Bora, and that the trees growing 
around the smaller circle are carved “with curious emblematical 
devices and figures”; whilst Mr. Macdonald informs us that on 
the Bora ground of the Page and Isis River Natives, as many 
as a hundred and twenty marked trees occur round about.H 
Confirmation is further afforded by Mr. W. O. Hodgkinson, who 
saw a Bora ground on the Macleay River with “ trees minutely 
tatooed, and carved to such a considerable altitude that he 
* Journ. Overland Exped. Moreton Bay to Port Essington, 1847, 
p. 356. 
f Journ. R. Soc. N.S. Wales for 1892 [1893], xvi., p. 201. 
J The Australian Race, 1886, ii., p. 433. 
§ Obs. Colonies of N.S. Wales and V.D. Land, 1832, p. 145, pi. 3. 
|| Journ. R. Soc. N.S. Wales for 1882 [1883] xvi., p. 205. 
If Jotirn. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit. Ireland, 1878, vii., p. 256. 
