Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1Grey, George
History
Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1
Grey, George
Natural history -- Australia -- Western Australia; Western Australia -- Discovery and exploration
There is a third instance of a cave with a figure in it in the district
of York, in the settlement of Swan River; but in this case the species of
circle which is drawn on the cave, or rather scraped into it with a piece
of stone, may represent anything or nothing; in fact it is no more than
any idle or thoughtless savage might have executed, without any fixed
design whatever. The only other vestige of drawing contained in the cave
is evidently the mere impression of a hand, which has been rubbed over
with the red paint with which the natives are in the constant habit of
bedaubing themselves, and has then been pressed in on the wall.
NATIVE TRADITIONS.
I had been told that the natives had some very curious traditions current
amongst them with regard to this last cave and, after having visited it
and satisfied myself that there was no analogy between it and the caves
on the north-west continent of Australia, I set about collecting some of
the native stories that related to it. These legends nearly all agreed in
one point, that originally the moon, who was a man, had lived there; but
beyond this there was nothing common to them all, for every narrator
indulged his own powers of invention to the greatest possible degree,
scarcely ever relating the same story twice, but on each occasion
inventing a new tradition; and the amount of marvels and wonders which he
unfolded in this revelation were exactly proportioned to the quantity of
food which I promised to give him. I once or twice charged them with
attempting to impose upon my credulity and, far from denying the charge,
they only laughed and said, "that was a very good thing which they told
me, and that the Djanga (white men) liked it very much."
COLOURS USED IN PAINTING.
In the painted caves on the north-western coasts five colours were used:
red, several shades; yellow; blue; black, and white. With the exception
of blue these colours are all known to the natives of the whole
continent. The red they either dig up from the earth, fit for use, in the
form of red earthy pebbles, or they find it in the form of a brilliant
yellow clay, which they beat, clean, and dry, leaving it exposed to the
air for several days, when they bake it in a bark basket, and then, if
the clay is good and it has been well prepared and burnt, it is nearly as
bright as vermilion. In some parts of the continent however no good clay
can be found; and in this case, at their annual fair, where they meet to
exchange certain commodities only locally produced, this brilliant red
ochre is considered a very valuable article of traffic.
Yellow they obtain from several sources: the most common is the yellow
clay from which the red is afterwards produced, but they also procure it
from a stone which is traversed by veins of yellow earth; from the
interior of the nest of a species of ant which collects a yellow dust;
and from a sort of fungus from which a similar dust is also obtained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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