The Aborigines when dancing in the corrobboree sometimes use two sticks about eighteen inches in length, formed of some wood which, when dry, is sonorous. These they strike together during the dance. The name of the stick (Fig. 174) is, according to Mr. Bulmer, Koorn-goon.
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| FIG. 174. |
He adds that a friend of his, having decided on forming a new station, started from the Edward River with a lot of cattle, having with him several blacks. When the settler was about to return home, one of the young natives asked him if he would carry a letter to his—the black's—father, and on expressing his willingness to do so, the young man gave him a piece of stick, about one foot in length, which was covered with notches and lines. On reaching home, the settler went to the black's camp, and delivered the letter to the father, who thereon called together all the blacks that were living with him, and, to the settler's great surprise, read off from the stick a diary of the proceedings of the party day by day from their departure from the Edward River till their arrival at the new station, describing accurately the country through which they had travelled and the places where they had camped each night.
Eyre mentions that young men sent with messages of invitation to a distant tribe carry with them, as their credentials, long narrow nets made of string manufactured from the rush. These nets are left with the tribe they are sent to, and brought back again when the invitation is responded to.—Vol.II., pp. 219-20.