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design on the two sides. The oblong space, in the middle, crossed with white dots and cross lines, is replaced on the other side by a design somewhat like that immediately to the right hand of it in the illustration; the latter was replaced by simple, cross-hatched white lines. This is the only one on which the two sides differed. Fig. 6 represents a small fish called Jimidauappa. It measures thirty-eight inches in length. Two eyes are indicated; the five oblongs with white cross lines have a red ground; the rest of the surface is yellow. Fig. 7 represents a large bird, the Australian stork, called jabiru, the native name of which is Brutpenniweir. It measures forty-two inches in length. The two dots are presumably meant for eyes. They are on a yellow ground, all the rest of the surface being red. Fig. 8 represents the same bird. The dark cross bands are yellow, a band of the same colour running along each side. The groundwork of the oblong spaces with lozenge-shaped centres and white cross lines and spots is red. Fig. 9 measures fifty-four inches in length; at the broader end it is elliptical in section, measuring two and a-half inches by one and a-quarter. The whole surface is red with white, cross-hatched lines and spots. Two elongate holes are evidently modifications of former eyes, and each of them has, threaded through it, a tassel of white and black feathers. Fig. 10 is one of the largest of the series, measuring Sixty inches in length. It represents an old crocodile or Eribinjori. The tips of the two prongs are light red, their lower parts are white. Then comes a band of dark red, an inch in width. Then comes a band, two and a-half inches across, with a light red ground and white lines and dots, as seen in the figure, the circle, surrounded by the white dots, being a dark red. Then

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comes a three-quarter inch band of dark red, the three-inch band of light red, with white bands and lines and an oblong hole through the centre. The rest of the surface is dark red, the greater portion being covered with close-set, white cross lines, a line of white spots running along each edge.

In addition to the sticks there are also stones that are associated with the Muraian ceremonies. I saw altogether twenty-nine of these, a few of which are represented on Plate VII. They are all of them naturally shaped stones, for the most part, apparently, sandstone. They all represent objects such as yams to which they approximate in shape, or the eggs of different animals. In most cases the stone seems to have been rubbed over first with red ochre, in a very few yellow ochre has been used, and then, just as in the case of the sticks, white cross lines and dots have been added. Fig. 1 represents the egg of Eribinjori, the large crocodile, and measures four inches in greatest diameter, and six inches in length, and one and three-quarters in width. Fig. 2 represents a Kudjalinga, or turtle's egg, the design in the centre suggests an attempt to portray the animal with its head and front feet. It measures seven inches in length, four and one-quarter in width, and is decidedly convex on the surface shown, and flat on the under one. Fig. 3 is a curiously flat stone, seven and a-half inches in length by three in width and one and a quarter in thickness, and represents a special yam called Gunumaramila. Fig. 4 represents a lily root, called Purijiliji, and Fig. 5, the smallest of them all, represents the egg of a Mundebendo, or wild turkey. Fig. 6 is a lily root or Worki, one of the most staple and favourite foods of the natives; Fig. 7 is the Iwaija Kopereipi, or emu egg, one of the earliest and most important of the Muraian stones, and Fig. 8 is the

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Kulori yam, which is associated with one of the most important initiation ceremonies.

These will serve to give some idea of the nature of these Muraian sticks and stones which are a peculiar feature of the Kakadu nation, so far as we know at present. They differ from the Churinga of the Arunta both in form and significance. The Churinga proper are wonderfully consistent in shape, whether they be made of wood or stone. They are typically flattened from side to side and decorated with incised patterns, whereas the Muraian objects vary very much in shape and may even, as we have seen, bear a crude resemblance to the animal with which they are associated. It Is interesting, in this respect, to compare a series of Muraian sticks such, for example, as the turtle (Plate IV., Fig. 1) and the turtle (Plate III., Fig. 3); the two Numereji snakes (Plate V., Figs. 2 and 3); the native companion (Plate III., Fig. 2) and the spur-winged plover (Plate VI., Fig. 4); the Bararil fish (Plate III., Fig. 1) and the Jimidauappa fish (Plate V., Fig. 6); and the yams (Plate III., Figs. 5-8). Of the turtles, the first is a fairly good representative of the animal and could not well be mistaken for anything else. The second is more like a trowel than a turtle, but the knowledge that it is really meant for a turtle enables a general fundamental resemblance to be detected. The upper of the two Numereji snakes is decidedly suggestive of the animal with its toothed jaws and banded body. The lower one is decidedly conventionalised both in form and decoration, three series of cross bands being emphasised. There is something In the shape of the Muraian object, representing the native companion, that suggests a bird, flying through the air, with its long beak, head, and neck extended straight in front; its body relatively small, and its legs stretched

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out behind. On the other hand, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that the forked stick, which represents the spur-winged plover, has anything whatever to do with a bird, beyond the fact that the two prongs may well be remnants of the indication of a long bill. So again the first of the two fishes has a decided suggestion of a fish-like form, but the second has none whatever and is purely conventional, the only indication of any relationship to an animal form being afforded by the two prongs which may represent the jaws, and two spots which certainly are vestiges of eyes. The first of the two yams, whilst conventionalised, does bear some resemblance to a swollen one, attached to a root, but the second is entirely unrecognisable as indicative of either an animal or a plant.

This series is of interest as showing the way in which, amongst these tribes, ceremonial objects have possibly been developed. In the first instance they may well have been designed to represent, with fair accuracy, the salient features of some animal or plant. In a climate such as that of the Northern Territory no wooden object lasts more than a certain time, so that these Muraian objects must have been remade time after time. It is quite possible that, when they were thus remade, the artificer endeavoured to reproduce, not the actual form of the animal or plant, but that of the original sacred object, as he remembered it. It is well known how copies, taken in succession, one after the other, of an original drawing, become so modified in the course of a relatively small series that the last bears no resemblance to the original--it has become completely conventionalised. It is possible that the Muraian objects show us a series that have not as yet become completely conventionalised but are on their way to this, and that, in course of time, had they been left alone, we might have had a series of sacred

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sticks and stones developed which would have shown no more resemblance to the animals and plants whose names they bear than do the Churinga, of the Arunta. There is, however, one important difference between the Muraian objects and the Churinga. The latter are associated with individual human beings, the former, save in the one case of the original Muraian, who was supposed to have been swimming about in the water in the form of a turtle, are always totemic animals or plants. They are very distinctly of this nature and thus differ markedly from the Churinga with each one of which a human being's spirit part is intimately associated. The Muraian of the Kakadu represent the essence, as it were, of the totemic animal or plant in just the same way in which the Churinga of the Arunta represent the essence of the human totemite, and these two sets of sacred objects indicate development of savage thought along two different lines. The Churinga of the Arunta and the beliefs associated with them are practically a thing of the past, for the tribe is now decimated in numbers and degenerate in habits. The Muraian of the Kakadu will not survive for long.

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