drawn, and the thumb and fingers are delineated. On the body are markings of this kind.—(Fig. 43.) The face is painted white, and the eyes black, with encircling red and yellow lines.
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| FIG. 43. |
Figure No. 2 is thus described:—"Upon the rock which formed the left-hand wall of this cave, and which partly faced you on entering, was a very singular painting, vividly colored, representing four heads joined together. From the mild expression of the countenances, I imagined them to represent females, and they appeared to be drawn in such a manner, and in such a position, as to look up at the principal figure which I have before described (No. 1); each had a very remarkable head-dress, colored with a deep bright blue, and one had a necklace on.[1] Both of the lower figures had a sort of dress, painted with red in the same manner as that of the principal figure, and one of them had a band round her waist. Each of the four faces was marked by a totally different expression of countenance, and although none of them had mouths, two, I thought, were otherwise rather good-looking. The whole painting was executed on a white ground."
Figure No. 3—an ellipse—painted a bright-yellow, and dotted over with red lines and spots, and having across it two transverse lines of blue, encloses a drawing of a kangaroo. The kangaroo is well sketched, and is exactly such a figure as an Aboriginal native would make. The ellipse seems to me to be intended for the representation of a spear-shield, but the black spots are not placed exactly where the handle of the weapon is usually inserted.
Another drawing. No. 4—that of a native carrying a kangaroo—presents many of the peculiarities that belong to native art.
A colored picture of a man at page 214 is also—as far as I am able to judge—the work of a native. It is thus described by Capt. Grey:—"The principal painting in it [the cave] was the figure of a man, ten feet six inches in length, clothed from the chin downwards in a red garment, which reached to the wrists and ankles; beyond this red dress the feet and hands protruded, and were badly executed. The face and head of the figure were enveloped in a
- ↑ The necklace is so drawn as to remind one at once of the necklace of kangaroo teeth figured in another part of this work.
in another part of this work, and the reader may consider it in connection with the drawing in Grey's Volume. It must be borne in mind that everything else figured in the caves where these pictures were seen was undoubtedly the work of the natives; and it is highly improbable that foreigners—intruders—who necessarily would have been daily and hourly in fear of losing their lives—unless they were guests of the natives, or captives—would have taken the trouble to procure the several colors necessary for such decorations as those described. It is suggested that the natives borrowed from India. But no figures in the Hindoo Pantheon resemble the cave-drawings. Around the head of Krishna, rays like those of the sun (not at all like the feathers of the cockatoo) are depicted, and Krishna wears a crown elaborately wrought. And not the head only but the body of Surya is surrounded with rays. If the red lines in the figure copied by Grey were intended to represent rays, and not the feathers of a bird, there is something to be investigated in the history of the natives of Australia that is of absorbing interest.
One of my correspondents has suggested that the figures may have been drawn by Portuguese or Spanish sailors, and are sacred emblems: if so, they must have been painted some three centuries ago—but, assuredly, they are not of a character to endure for any very great length of time.
