So great a nuisance did this become that the Warden actually
recommended the Government to place heaps of broken bottles at the foot
of each pole, hoping by this means to save the insulators by supplying
the natives with glass!
The stone or glass heads are firmly fixed in a lump of spinifex gum, and
this is held firm on the shaft by kangaroo tail sinews. The shaft is of
cane for half its length, the upper part being of bamboo, which is found
on the banks of the northern rivers.
Up to a distance of eighty to one hundred yards the spears can be thrown
with fair accuracy and great velocity.
The length of these spears varies from 10 feet to 15 feet. The one shown
in sketch is of glass, and is one-half actual size.
In the Nor'-West (that is, the country lying between the Gascoyne and
Oakover rivers), wooden spear-heads with enormous barbs are used.
Sometimes the barbs are placed back to back, so that on entering a body
they can be pulled neither forward nor back.
C. THE WOOMERA (or Wommera) - the throwing-board - held in the hand as in
sketch. The spears rest on the board, and are kept in place by the first
finger and thumb and by the bone point A, which fits into a little hollow
on the end of the shaft. The action of throwing resembles that of
slinging a stone from a handkerchief. As the hand moves forward the spear
is released by uplifting the forefinger, and the woomera remains in the
hand. These boards vary in size and shape considerably; that shown in the
sketch is from the northern portion of the desert. In the central
portion the weapons are more crude and unfinished. In the handle end of
the woomera a sharp flint is often set, forming a sort of chisel.
In Kimberley the long spears are thrown with narrow and light boards
varying from 2 feet 6 inches to 3 feet 6 inches in length.
I believe that the method of holding the spear varies somewhat, some
natives placing the handle of the woomera between the first and remaining
fingers.
2. TOMAHAWKS. - D. Iron-headed; E. Stone-headed.
D. Pieces of iron, such as horseshoes, fragments of the tyres of wheels,
and so forth, are traded from tribe to tribe for many hundreds of miles.
Those shown in sketch were found about lat. 21 degrees 50 minutes, long.
126 degrees 30 minutes.
