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[Page 9]
deep right and left matches. Descending so the ground be tied his vine behind him is a knot that would not slip. Grasping it again with either hand he climbed back to the notches already cut. Placing his feet firmly in them he then carefully adjusted the knot and part of the vine on the upper part of his posterior, the thrust of his legs from the tree keeping him firm and steady and the vine taut. Thus he was able to do without a hand hold and to use the tomahawk with both hands if so inclined. Showing great endurance I have seen an aboriginal chop for half an hour or more in this precarious and uncomfortable position without coming to the ground for a rest. They were so sinuous and so deft in their movements, especially in the wristy and graceful play of the tomahawk, with never a blow wasted or misplaced, that it was a great pleasure to watch them when hunting for game either aloft or below. Mostly they climbed naked except for a belt needed to carry the tomahawk. Sometimes while resting or shifting position in a tree they hooked this implement over the right shoulder and kept it in place by slightly elevating the shoulder and pressing downwards with the cheek and jawbone.
Accidents were rare though I have seen one or two adults partly crippled by falls in their boyhood. Mr Ogilvie of Yulgibar once saw a black boy fall from a high tree with fatal results. He had used a vine all day till it became frayed and worn so that it broke.
The arts and crafts of these northern tree natives were few and simple though a good deal of ingenuity was displayed in some. They constructed three kinds of weather shelters, the principle being of stringy bark sheets stripped from adjacent trees and propped up lean to fashion, with forks and sticks. The outer bark of the tea tree was also used laid in layers over a framework of sticks. Thirdly, running and cosy little shelters were comprised with bushes and leaves but these were only used in cool dry weather, against cold westerlies and the like, but they would not turn heavy rain. No
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doubt the blacks were to some extent weather wise for their shelters were always erected with their backs to the wind and rain, the fronts being open to the invariable fire.
If these primitive people had to a superlative degree, any special quality as virtue I should put it down as patience. The cultivation of this quality probably arose from the fact that for centuries past they lived in the Stone Age. With such inefficient implements as stone tomahawks, flint knives, shell scrapers and pointed sticks, imagine the infinite patience required to cut most of these living cut of hardwood trees and logs, to strip bark for their shelters, and to shape and fashion their weapons of war and for the chase. Indeed the manufacture facture of a stone tomahawk itself, from the grinding to a sharp edge to the fixing on an adequate handle must have been a task needing no end of patience and perseverance. So, even since the steel age reached the blacks, I often noted the patience with which they scraped their spears (using broken glass) to a long fine point, trimmed their boomerangs to an exact weight and balance or carried out any task weeding special skill and attention. I never saw a barbed spear amongst the tribes of the upper Richmond or Clarence but it is possible those of the sea coast way have used barbs for spearing fish. Nor did the tribes I knew use the womerah, or spear throwing stick, though according to Robert Dawson's book on Australia (published 1831) it was in use at Port Stephens when he took up the A.A. Company's Grant in 1826. I have also been told, on reliable authority, that it was used by the Macleay river natives and it is strange that it occurs in some districts and misses out in others. All the weapons used by the blacks I write of were dried and hardened by being passed through flames and smoke. In domestic arts the principal were – spinning opossums fur into yarn or rope, making opossum skin rugs, weaving dilly bags with coarse grass, making string from the bark and then from the string, manufacturing loose mesh
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bags and nets for fishing. Describing these; the fur
was plucked from the animals in the Spring when the
winter coats were loosening, and a small spindle was
made in the form of a double cross, that is to say, a
green haft about 20 inches long with a nine inch cross
stick about 4 or 5 inches through the top and another at
right angles to the first one. These sticks were fixed
by raising the bark of the haft and pushing them under
it. The operator (a man) sat on the ground with a
pile of fur at his left hand and gave the rotary motion
to the spindle by rolling it smartly with the palm of
his right hand about his brawny thigh. The tips of
the cross sticks picked up the fur, fed to them by the
operator's left hand, the whole operation went on with
amazing swiftness and dexterity and in some miraculous
way, which at this distance of time I can not exactly
explain, the fur became a long and rather uneven looking
rope of about three-eighths of an inch diameter. It
was chiefly used cut into lengths for aprons and for
waist girdles. Not being very strong it was necessary
to pass at least half a dozen turns round the waist to
carry a tomahawk or boomerangs.
In making opossum rugs the winter skins were
pegged out on trees and dried in the usual way and
were then prepared by the women and made soft and
pliable by patient rubbing with smooth stones. Before
the coming of the white men's needles and thread I
believe they were sewn together with kangaroo tail sinews.
They were beautiful rugs, much appreciated by
white housewives. Dilly bag grass grows in clumps,
the stem is tall, flat, and tough and it is found usually
in sandstone country. Years ago it was not plentiful
but on the homestead ridge at Bentley, between Casino
and Lismore, I have seen black gins pounce eagerly
upon it, gather it, and carefully stow it away for future
use. Seven years ago I saw some clumps of it at Mr
B. Carlill's property Eurigar, Shannon Brook, about a
dozen miles from Casino. The gins had some way of
preparing the grass before weaving and the close woven
finished work was exquisite and extremely durable.
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