54 
RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 
could not help feeling astonished at the labour bestowed on the 
work.”* 
If, as previously stated, according to current report, the designs 
on the trees be the same as those on the ’possum rugs, the transfer 
of them to the trees surrounding a grave must have had some 
important and lasting meaning to the survivors. The figures on 
the rug may have indicated some degree of ownership, a crest, 
coat of arms, or monogram, as it were, and in such a case the 
reproduction on the trees surrounding a grave may be looked 
upon as an identification of the deceased. Henderson speaks of 
the tree carvings as symbols. “ A symbol is afterwards carved 
upon the nearest tree, which seems to indicate the particular 
tribe to which the individual may have belonged.”! Or had 
they a deeper esoteric meaning, one only known to the 
learned men of the tribe ? Smyth states { that the figures on 
the inner sides of the ’possum rugs “ were the same as those on 
their weapons, namely, the herring-bone, chevron, and saltier.” 
How easily these same devices can be traced, in a general way, both 
on the carved trees and some of the wooden weapons, is amply 
shown by many of the excellent figures given in Smyth’s work. 
This painstaking Author, in briefly dealing, too briefly in fact, 
with this interesting subject, says,§ “ The natives of the Murray 
and the Darling, and those in other parts adjacent, carved on the 
trees near the tombs of deceased warriors strange figures having 
meanings no doubt intelligible to all the tribes in the vast area 
watered by these rivers.” By the Kamilarai[| they were regarded 
as “ memorials ” of the dead. 
It is much to be regretted that before the last remnant of this 
fast disappearing race has passed away, a translation, or at any 
rate an explanation of these matters, cannot be obtained. 
# Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I., p. 292. 
fObs. Colonies of N.S. Wales and V.D. Land, 1832, p. 149. 
t Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I., p. 288. 
§ Ibid , p. 286. The italics are mine. 
|| T. Honery, Journ. Anthrop. Inst. Gt. Brit, and Ireland, 1878, vii., 
p. 254. 
