ROCK PAINTINGS AND CARTINGS OP TIIE ABORIGINES. 
629 
clung to the customs of his forefathers with a tenacity unusual in 
the members of his race, may have whiled away many a solitary hour 
in his rocky home there amongst the barren Ilawkesburies, executing 
some of these drawings in the hope, perhaps, that they might keep 
green the memory of the gods of his race. 
A certain freshness, by no means suggestive of age, which sur- 
rounds some of these drawings, and the conservative spirit said to be 
possessed by the old aboriginal, lead me to believe that the figures in 
this cave are the most recently executed of any described in this 
paper ; but a long period must have elapsed between the execution of 
the first and last of these figures, as no less than 130 hands stencilled 
in white are distinctly visible. They are in various positions and very 
much crowded, in many eases being contiguous. There are also one 
or two blurred masses of white colour to be seen on the rock, in which 
a minute search discloses traces of fingers or other portions of hands 
which have at different times been stencilled on it. Time would not 
permit of my taking a sketch of the hands showing their positions 
relative to the other figures. 
There are three hands with the arm as far as the elbow stencilled 
in white, and, judging from the appearance of one of them, the arm 
of the artist shifted at the critical moment; also a hand with a 
portion of a spear or waddy stencilled in the same colour in 
such a way that the junction between the two is not discernible; 
a tomahawk with the handle .attached; a waddy or portion of a spear, 
and what appears to be a combination of spear and tomahawk,, 
also stencilled in white on a black background, which 1 am sure 
has been produced by the use of a black colouring matter and not by 
smoke ; for, as I have stated before, the execution of all the figures 
must have extended over a great length of time. Now, if the wall 
and roof had been blackened by the action of smoke, some of the 
earlier drawings would obviously have also been discoloured; but in 
no instance was this the case. A figure, which may be intended to 
represent the sun, is drawn in white with twelve distinct rays of 
unequal length, and a shapeless mass is attached to it, which may have 
been caused by a bungle of the artist in drawing another ray; other 
drawings are — a large figure very rudely drawn in white, which resem- 
bles an opossum ; a. bird in the act of swimming or flying, and a large 
figure of a man about five feet ten inches high, both drawn in black.; 
two figures (one with the lower portion weathered away) drawn in 
red, which resemble in all respects the other figures of men I have 
seen drawn by the aboriginals, with the exception of the head, whick 
in one of them is shaped like a cocked hat, and no features are visible 
in either of them ; a drawing in red, which resembles a two-headed 
leangle, or pick -shaped club, which was in use amongst the aborigines 
of Victoria, but I have never heard of this weapon being used by the 
tribes of New South Wales; and, lastly, a figure drawn in red, which 
at a first glance looks like a coiled snake with head upraised. 
There are altogether about 145 figures in the cave, including 130 
hands, which is the greatest number 1 have ever seen in any one rock- 
shelter. 
Fig. 3. — These drawings are to be found in a crescent-shaped 
hollow, facing northerly, in the Hawkesbury Sandstone on the SL 
2 R 
