Many of the Dunbuie finds are engraved in Mr. Millar's paper on
Dunbuie.[4] But he has not engraved the most unmistakable churinga, a
small oval slab of stone, with an ornament of little cups following
its outline (much as in an Irish instance), and provided, like stone
churinga in Australia, with a hole for suspension.
He does engrave certain hitherto unheard-of articles-spearheads of
slate, two supplied with suspension holes. One (p. 294) has a pattern
of the simplest, like a child's drawing of a larch, which recurs in
Australia.[5] That these slate spear-heads, pierced for suspension,
were used in war I doubt, though some Australians do use spear-heads
'of a flinty slate;' and where flint is so scarce, as in Scotland, hard
slate may be used--for example, in North America.[6] I rather regard
the slate weapons as amulets, or churinga, analogous to the very old
and rare boomerang-shaped churinga of the Arunta (lizard totem) of
Central Australia. Mr. Millar observes: 'They have all been saturated
with oil or fat, as water does not adhere to them, but runs off as from
a greasy surface.' Now the Australian churinga are very frequently
rubbed with red ochre, and made greasy with 'hand grease'--a singular
coincidence. Footmarks are among the sacred Australian rock-paintings
with a legendary sense. They also occur, engraved on rock in Brittany,
Ireland, on 'The Fairy Stone' (ilkinia) in Glenesk, and on 'The
Witches' Stone' at Monzie, associated with cups and concentric
circles.[7] These close analogies point all in one direction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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