these specialities are what the writer has called “ dancing boards,” 
as they have not been previously described and they form the 
subject of this paper, which is an amplification of one contributed 
by the writer by invitation to the Royal Society of Tasmania in 
1904. It was forgotten, however, to be published in their Pro- 
ceedings through the failing health of their secretary, but it 
appeared in the Tasmanian Mail of the 1 2th August, 1905. The 
area concerned extends from the Yilgarn and Coolgardie Gold- 
fields, on the south, to near the coast at the Pilbara Goldfield, 
to the northward, a distance of 700 miles, to the eastern boundary 
of the State and probably beyond it. As far as the writer has 
been able to ascertain, the use of the boards does not extend 
into the Kimberley district, which covers an additional area of 
400 by 400 miles to the northward. The names used for these 
boards by the Bulong tribes is “ Gundine,” and by the Kurnalpi 
tribes “ Gannery,” and by those at Kalgoorlie “ Oorloo-edna ” 
and “ Coondang ” and ‘‘ Ilma-oorloo.” 
The boards consist of flatfish slabs of wood, ranging from 
2 feet 6 inches to 13 feet in length , and 2 inches to 8 inches in 
width. 'I hey are always decorated on the flat or hollow side 
with incised patterns cut ordinarily by means of sharp-edged 
flakes of quartz ; where, however, there is contact with white 
people the aboriginals are quick to avail themselves of the use 
of tools, such as steel tomahawks and gouges for the purpose 
The smaller sized boards are made of rnulga wood, which forms 
the principal portion of the scrub in these localities, but as it 
does not often attain sufficient size for the largest boards, slabs 
of salmon gum ( Eucalyptus salmonophloia ) or white gum are used. 
The dead trunks of these trees weather and decay along the 
softer ring growths and gum partings, and white ants frequently 
eat out these softer ring growths, leaving shell-like portions of 
the outer parts of the trunk, affording thereby convenient slabs 
for this purpose, These are generally curved in cross-section, 
representing the curvature of the trunk of the tree, and even 
when the smaller slabs are flat a curvature is often artificially 
given to it by gouging out the most suitable side for the purpose. 
Allied objects of symbolic import but of smaller size of both 
wood and stone have been described by Professor Baldwin Spencer 
and Mr. F. G. Gillen, in the account of the Horn Expedition in 
1894 (see Yol. IV, pp. 76-80, and plate 7), The former states 
that they are common to a large group of natives in the interior, 
and to the Arunta tribe, and are called “ Churina.” “ The typical 
form of the wooden objects is that of a slab of hard wood, which 
is either flat on both sides, plano-convex, or concavo-convex. 
The ends taper to more or less obtuse points, or are rounded. 
Many of them are in fact exaggerated forms of the well-known 
‘ bull-roarer ’ (Trula), which itself must be regarded as belonging 
to the same category of articles. Both surfaces are marked with 
