Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 365 pages of information about Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1.

Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 365 pages of information about Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES.

It would be impossible to convey in words an adequate idea of this uncouth and savage figure; I shall therefore only give such a succinct account of this and the other paintings as will serve as a sort of description to accompany the annexed plates.

The dimensions of the figure were: 

Length of head and face 2 feet. 
Width of face 17 inches. 
Length from bottom of face to navel 2 feet 6 inches.

Its head was encircled by bright red rays, something like the rays which one sees proceeding from the sun when depicted on the sign-board of a public house; inside of this came a broad stripe of very brilliant red, which was coped by lines of white, but both inside and outside of this red space were narrow stripes of a still deeper red, intended probably to mark its boundaries; the face was painted vividly white, and the eyes black, being however surrounded by red and yellow lines; the body, hands, and arms were outlined in red, the body being curiously painted with red stripes and bars.

DRAWING OF FOUR HEADS.

Upon the rock which formed the left hand wall of this cave, and which partly faced you on entering, was a very singular painting (Number 2) vividly coloured, 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; each had a very remarkable head-dress, coloured with a deep bright blue, and one had a necklace on.  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 distinct 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, and its dimensions were: 

Total length of painting 3 feet 6 3/4 inches. 
Breadth across two upper heads 2 feet 6 inches. 
Ditto across the two lower ones 3 feet 1 1/2 inches.

The next most remarkable drawing in the cave (Number 3) was an ellipse, three feet in length and one foot ten inches in breadth:  the outside line of this painting was of a deep blue colour, the body of the ellipse being of a bright yellow dotted over with red lines and spots, whilst across it ran two transverse lines of blue.  The portion of the painting above described formed the ground, or main part of the picture, and upon this ground was painted a kangaroo in the act of feeding, two stone spearheads, and two black balls; one of the spearheads was flying to the kangaroo, and one away from it; so that the whole subject probably constituted a sort of charm by which the luck of an enquirer in killing game could be ascertained.

TWO OTHER DRAWINGS.

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Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in North-West and Western Australia, Volume 1 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.