IlOUN EXPEDITION—ANTTIUOPOLOGY. 
99 
belonging fcij some other locality which has been imported into these districts, and 
is well understood by the blacks though it is not a word of their language. 
They are made of two ditterent kinds of wood—one is that of Stuart’s Bean Tree 
{Erythrina vespertilio)^ a very soft wood; the other that of some kind of hard 
wooded Eucalypt, probably E. rostrata. In each case they are cut out of a solid 
piece, a task which, in the case of the hard Eucalyptus wood, must involve 
considerable labour. Both kinds show the groovings of the implements used in 
their manufacture which are either narrow or wide, finely or roughly made. Those 
made of Erythrina wood (“Uritcha”) (Plate VI., Fig. 3), though varying much in 
size, were all of the same pattern, being boat-shaped with rounded or, to use a 
nautical term, fiambowed ends. Further to the north another pattern exists 
with the ends resembling the bow of a straight stemmed boat. The largest 
collected was 22 inches long by 6 inches broad, and the smallest 14 inches long 
by 4J inches broad. 
As the Erythrina tree does not grow south of the McDonnells, these vessels 
must be imported into the region of which I write. 
Of the hard-wooded Pitchis (“ Tanna” or “Tunna”) two patterns also were 
met with—one trough-shaped, with the longitudinal contour much curved and 
the ends consequently so much turned up that it is capable of carrying water 
(Plate VI., Fig. 3); the other having the longitudinal contour of the bottom only 
slightly curved, and the ends therefore open. The shape of the latter vessel is, in 
fact, such as would be produced by bending towards one another the sides of a very 
slightly concave oval tray. This form is only adapted for carrying solid substances. 
The largest of the hard-wood pitchis was 304 inches by 11 inches, and the smallest 
144 inches by 7 inches. Larger sizes are, however, made. When being carried 
they are frequently slung over the shoulder of the same side with a sling made of 
a long length of human hair-string coiled into a hank of some 30 or 40 strands, 
and from 18 inches to 22 inches in length between the extended bights. Tliis 
hank is loosely served {vid. infra “Head-rings”) so that it forms a rope-like 
ring, one loop of which rests on the shoulder of the same side, while the pitchi 
rests in the other. 
Grinding-Stones. 
A good specimen of the nether- or bed-stone, used for grinding seeds, which 
was found in an abandoned native camp at Gill’s Range, is an irregularly 
quadrangular Hat slab of ferruginous sandstone, 2 feet long by 14 inches in the 
widest part and about 2 inches thick. On the working surface two nearly 
parallel elliptical shallow depressions have been worn by use, and in some 
14a 
