Antique Australian aboriginal carved emu egg The belief seemed to be

The belief seemed to be that a dried cat or dog would protect against witchcraft and scare a witch's familiar away from the house

although most of the paint has work=n off over the last century

The inner ear is removable to show the semi-circular canals etc

As this repair is plaited in the same way as the rest of the strap this seems to have been repaired in the village

It is still in good condition as can be seen from the photos

Antique Australian aboriginal carved emu egg The belief seemed to beThis specimen probably dates from mid to late 19th Century. This is known as "Kalti Paarti", the practice of carving emu eggs. This art form has been continued to the present day. These early example usually have quite nave carvings compared to the later tourist items. With this example if you look closely you can see where the shell has been scraped away with a blade of some description and smoother areas where the pattern was smoothed, often using