Page:Dawson - Australian aborigines (1900).djvu/104

 with the leg bone of the emu, or with the small bone of the hind leg of the large kangaroo ground to a long, sharp point, and lashed to the shaft with the tail sinews of the kangaroo. The spear called 'bundit' — which name means 'bite' — is made of a very rare, heavy wood from the Cape Otway mountains, and is so valuable that it is never used in fighting or hunting, but only as an ornament. It is given as a present in token of friendship, or exchanged for fancy maleen spears from the interior. Spears are warded off with the light shield, which is a thin, oblong, concave piece of wood about two and a half feet long, nine inches broad in the centre, and tapering towards the ends. It has a handle in the middle of the hollow side, which is grasped by the hand when in use, and the convex side is ornamented with the usual diagonal cross lines. The aborigines never heard of poisoned spears, or the use of poison for the destruction of life. The liangle is a heavy, formidable weapon, about two and a half feet long, with a sharp-pointed bend, nine inches in length, projecting at a right angle. It is used in fighting at close quarters; and the blows are warded off by the heavy shield, which is a strong piece of triangular wood, three feet long by five or six inches broad, tapering to a point at each end; with a hole in the centre, lined with opossum skin, for the left hand. In grappling, the shields are thrown away, and the combatants deliver their blows on each other's backs with the sharp point of the liangle, by reaching over their shoulders. The liangle is not ornamented in any way, but the front of the shield is covered with the usual diagonal lines.

There are several kinds of clubs, varying in size from a walking-stick, which the natives term a 'companion,' up to one of a formidable size, called a wuæ whuitch, which is always made of heavy wood, and is about two feet and a half long, with a broad almond-shaped end, about a foot long, terminating in a sharp point. The war boomerang is much heavier and more obtuse in the angle than the toy boomerang, and on being thrown it does not return. The natives generally carry a weapon resembling a war boomerang, but longer and heavier, and somewhat like a scimitar in shape. It is used as a scimitar.