Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/103

Rh CHAPTER XIX. WEAPONS. The spear is the chief and most formidable weapon amongst the aborigines. There are seven kinds of spears, each of which is used for a special purpose. The longest and heaviest are the war spears, which are about nine feet long, and made of ironbark saplings reduced to a uniform thickness. They are variously named from the way in which they are pointed. The 'tuulowarn' has a smooth point. The 'tungung'gil' is barbed on one side for six inches from the point. The 'wurokiigil' is jagged for six inches on each side of the point, with sharp splinters of flint or volcanic glass, fixed in grooves with the same kind of cement which is employed to fix the handles of stone axes. The hunting spear, 'narmall,' is about seven feet long, and is made of a peeled ti-tree sapling, with a smooth, sharp point; to balance the weapon it has a fixed buttpiece formed of the stalk of the grass tree, about two feet long, and with a hole in the pith in its end to receive the hook of the spear-thrower; but, as the hook of the spear-thrower would soon destroy the light grass tree, a piece of hard wood is inserted in the end, and secured with a lashing of kangaroo sinew. Although the narmall is chiefly used for killing game, it is the first spear thrown in fighting, as it can be sent to a greater distance than the heavy war spears, which are only used in close quarters.

The spear-thrower is a piece of wood about two feet and a half long, and three-quarters of an inch thick. It is two or three inches broad in the middle, and tapers off into a handle at one end and a hook at the other. Its object is to lengthen the arm, as it were, and at the same time balance the spear by bringing the hand nearer its centre. The hook of the spear-thrower is put into the hole in the end of the hunting-spear, and the other end is grasped with the hand, which also holds the spear above it with the finger and thumb. With this instrument a spear is sent to a much greater distance than without it. The 'gnirrin' spear is made of a strong reed, about five feet long, with a sharp point of ironbark wood, and is used only for throwing at criminals, as mentioned in the chapter on great meetings. The eel spear is formed of a peeled ti-tree sapling, of the thickness of a little finger and about seven feet long, pointed