being raised. Both methods are striking, and when colors are used, the effects are far from unpleasing.
Attention has been given from time to time to the figures and paintings found in caves in Australia. As far as I am aware, no paintings have been discovered in caves in Victoria, though in one or two there have been detected evidences of such caves having been frequented by the Aborigines, not perhaps because of the shelter which they afforded, but in order to enable the priests to perform some rites, or to present, for the purpose of increasing their influence amongst the natives, some tricks or jugglery. One cave in Victoria, which I have often visited, is said to have been the abode of Pundjil. In Western Australia there are numerous caverns in the sandstone rocks, and Capt. (now Sir George) Grey, the explorer, has given a very interesting account of the paintings which he saw in them. I have carefully examined all the figures and descriptions of the cave-pictures given in Grey's volumes,[1] and, with one doubtful exception, they appear to me to be the work of natives, unassisted by any knowledge gained by intercourse with persons of a different race. Moreover, I believe them to be modern, and similar to the drawings that are now made in caves by the natives of North-Western, Northern, and North-Eastern Australia.
These figures have been compared with those of the Hindoos and Egyptians, and an attempt has been made, as far as I am able to understand the argument, to show that the natives of Australia have derived their ideas of such forms from the representations of the gods of the ancients.[2] If there be any resemblance, I can find none. It is much more reasonable to suppose that the Hindoos and Egyptians used forms derived from the representations of the Aboriginal peoples who once roamed over the sites of their splendid cities than that the savages now living borrowed from them.[3]
The figures in Capt. Grey's work resemble, in many respects, those usually
drawn by the natives of Victoria and other parts, and the colors are those employed by them. The first figure given in Capt. Grey's work is that of a face and part of the body of a man. The eyes and nose are shown, but not the mouth. The head is surrounded with bright-red rays.[4] The arms are neatly
- ↑ Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, by George George Grey, 1841.
- ↑ Remarks on the probable Origin and Antiquity of the Aboriginal Natives of New South Wales, by a Colonial Magistrate, 1846.
- ↑ The Hindoos, it is true, paint their bodies. They paint their arms and their breasts, and sometimes their throats. "Sandal-powder, turmeric, chuna or lime, ashes from a consecrated fire, cow-dung and other holy combustibles, made adhesive by a size of rice-water, or sometimes rubbed on dry, are the ingredients and usages on this occasion. Several lines of white, ashen, or yellow hue are commonly seen drawn across the arms and breasts; and I understand that Yogis and Saniasis, and other pious persons, frequently carry about them a little packet of these holy pigments, with which they mark those who show them respect in repayment of their attentions."—The Hindu Pantheon, by Edward Moor, F.R.S., p. 375.
Surely these practices have been derived from those of a more ancient uncivilized race. Civilization struggles vainly against such usages; it may sometimes almost extinguish them, but it is certain it never originates them.
- ↑ Fresh light is thrown on this subject by the discovery of the head-dress (Oogee) worn at corrobborees by the men of the North. As soon as Mr. Pantou sent me the decoration, it occurred to me that this picture in Grey's volume was an attempt to represent it. The head-dress is figured
