The Canoes,
Fish-Gigs, Swords, Shields, Spears, Throwing Sticks, Clubs, And Hatchets,
Are Made By The Men.
To the women are committed the fishing-lines, hooks
and nets.
As very ample collections of all these articles are to be found
in many museums in England, I shall only briefly describe the way in which
the most remarkable of them are made. The fish-gigs and spears are commonly
(but not universally) made of the long spiral shoot which arises from the top
of the yellow gum-tree, and bears the flower. The former have several prongs,
barbed with the bone of kangaroo. The latter are sometimes barbed
with the same substance, or with the prickle of the sting-ray, or with stone
or hardened gum, and sometimes simply pointed. Dexterity in throwing
and parrying the spear is considered as the highest acquirement. The children
of both sexes practice from the time that they are able to throw a rush;
their first essay. It forms their constant recreation. They afterwards heave
at each other with pointed twigs. He who acts on the defensive holds a piece
of new soft bark in the left hand, to represent a shield, in which he receives
the darts of the assailant, the points sticking in it. Now commences
his turn. He extracts the twigs and darts them back at the first thrower,
who catches them similarly. In warding off the spear they never present
their front, but always turn their side, their head at the same time
just clear of the shield, to watch the flight of the weapon;
and the body covered.
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