4 
RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 
similar to those already described in the first “ Bull-roarer,” and 
the stone implement. 
On the flat side of this implement (PI. ii., Fig. 6), the carving 
is very remarkable, consisting of indiscriminately scattered small 
circles, and arcs or semicircles in various degrees of completeness 
and position. Here and there are transverse short incised lines 
proceeding from the margins inwards, precisely as the larger 
incisions drawn in PI. i., Figs. 1 and 2. These crossbars or trans- 
verse incisions are also seen in one of Hardman’s figures* of the 
Kimberley implements. On the convex face of the smallest 
“ Bull-roarer ” (PL ii., Fig. 8) are four discs, each one surrounded 
by two semicircles of concentric incisions, whilst the third from 
the top is separated off by crossbars. On the reverse of this 
implement (PI. ii., Fig. 7) the ornamentation is again different, 
consisting of a central longitudinal serpentine figure looped on 
itself at the upper end, margined by bow-shaped figures of three 
or more incisions, and the re-entering angles between the latter 
occupied by short transverse bars. The execution of the incised 
sculpture on this beautiful little implement is of a much more 
finished nature than that on the. preceding u Bull-roarer ” (PI. ii., 
Figs. 5 and 6), and more akin to that of the first described 
(PI. i., Figs. 3 and 4). It is ten inches long by one and a quarter 
inches wide. 
The question of this circular ornamentation or pictography 
seems to have engaged the attention of writers on the Australian 
Aborigines but little. It has been suggested by Mr. D. Brown, 
who obtained examples from Stuart’s Creek, Central Australia, 
that these concentric rings indicate the practice of sun worship 
on the part of those who carved them.f On the other hand, 
Prof. R. Tate rejects the view that they are symbols at all, and 
believes the execution of them to be merely a matter of sport.^ 
He further very much doubted if they could be regarded as the 
production of the untutored Aboriginal. It is, however, a curious . 
coincidence that one of the principal localities for these circular 
inscised “ Bull-roarers ” is Kimberley, where at the time of Mr. 
Hardman’s explorations the Blacks had come in contact with the 
White-man possibly as little as anywhere. Without entering 
into the question of sun worship, although some of our Aboriginal 
tribes seem to have possessed customs and practices suspiciously 
like this form of adoration, even if they were unacquainted with, 
or had lost their esoteric meaning — it may be pointed out that 
the only published objects bearing this circular ornamentation 
are “ Bull roarers,” and as everyone knows these are the most 
* Proc. R. Irish Acad. (2), i., 1888, No. 1, t. 3, f. 2. 
f Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A., iii., 1880, p. xxiii. 
I Trans. Roy. Soc. S.A., iii., 1880, p. xxiv. 
