them with fresh water when they reach a creek or water-hole. They are indispensable to a tribe that is wandering through forests or over plains where water may not be met with at every place of encampment.
The Tarnuk in all the specimens I have seen is the hollowed gnarl of a gum-tree. Unlike the Tarnuk bullito, however, it is made very thin, and the interior is smooth. It was smoothed, no doubt, by laborious scraping. It is light, and, even when full of water, would not be a very heavy burden. The bark covering the gnarl, but most often the layer of wood next to the bark, was used for these vessels. Those made of such wood are, I believe, the lightest, as they are certainly the best. The twine for carrying the vessel was made of the fibre of the stringybark or some other vegetable fibre, and was passed through holes pierced on each side of the Tarnuk.
The shoe-shaped vessel shown in the figure in the foreground was used as a drinking vessel—the water being taken either out of the Tarnuk or out of a creek. It is called No-been-tarno by the natives of the Yarra.
The specimen in my possession is made of the limb of a tree—the larger part being that which sprang from the parent stem. The pointed part or tongue was evidently used as a handle. It will hold about two pints of water. It is roughly made, and, though very old, is yet serviceable.
The gnarled tree shown in the drawing is not an unfair representation of the mode of growth of some of the eucalypti, and it was from such knobs and gnarls as are there depicted that the natives found materials for the Tarnuks.
On the River Powlett, in Gippslaud, and elsewhere, the gnarled trees are seen stripped of their bark, and the larger excrescences have been cut off with the stone tomahawk for the purpose of making water vessels.
In some parts of Victoria and in central Australia the natives use the skins of animals for carrying water. The skin of the native cat is preferred. It is taken off with the greatest care, the incision and the skin which covered the feet, &c., are carefully sewn up and made water-tight, and the neck is left open. This vessel is carried with a string, formed into a loop and passed over the head, the skin of water hanging at the back.
These vessels resemble the water-skins used by the ancient Egyptians.[1]
"Among many of the tribes may be seen a strange sort of ornament or rather utensil—namely, a drinking cup made of a human skull. It is slung on cords and carried by them, and the owner takes it wherever he or she goes. These ghastly utensils are made from the skulls of the nearest and dearest relatives; and when an Australian mother dies, it is thought right that her daughter should form the skull of her mother into a drinking vessel. The preparation is simple enough. The lower-jaw is removed, the brains are extracted, and the whole of the skull thoroughly cleaned. A rope handle, made of bulrush fibre, is then attached to it, and it is considered fit for use. It is filled with water through the vertebral aperture, into which a wisp of grass is always stuffed, so as to prevent the water from being spilled."[2]
