The Wurunjerri method of making fire was by drilling on a flat piece of the dry wood of the Djel-wuk,[1] which grows plentifully in the gullies of the Dandenong Mountains and of the Yarra River. The drill-stick is one of the young shoots, about thirty inches in length, which is carefully dried. The thicker end is pointed, and is inserted in a small cavity in the flattened piece. A small notch is cut from the
FIG. 54—URABUNNA MAN MAKING FIRE.
cavity to the edge of the lower piece. The drill is rapidly turned in the cavity, thus producing fine dust, which first turns black then falls on to some frayed bark fibre which has been placed below the groove to receive it. Finally the abraded dust takes fire, and being folded up in the fibre, is blown into a flame. I have seen fire produced in this way in a minute, and I once, and once only, succeeded in doing it myself in a minute and a half.
The blacks of the Manero tableland and their
- ↑ Hedicaria Cunninghami, the "Native Mulberry."
