Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/339

1837.] also used for the same purpose. They are very careful to preserve this, and will even kindle a fire by friction, or otherwise, to revive it. Their weapons consist of spears of two or three kinds, which are propelled with a throwing stick (meero). They have also a knife (tapo), stone hammer (ugardee), and curl koilee, or curved flat weapon, similar to the bomerang of the New South Wales natives.

The spears (gudye) are made of a long slender stick, about the thickness of a finger, of a heavy tough quality, supposed to be the black wattle; they are scraped down to a very fine point, and are hardened and straightened by the assistance of fire. Those intended for hunting and fishing, called moongaul, are barbed with a piece of wood fastened on very neatly and firmly with kangaroo sinew (peat), and the ligature covered with gum obtained from the grass tree. They are about eight feet in length; the war spears are longer and heavier, and are armed, for five or six inches from the point, with pieces of sharp stones fixed in gum, resembling the teeth of a saw, the stones increasing in size, the smallest being at the point; glass has been substituted for the stones where broken bottles have been found; each man carries from two to five spears.

The throwing stick (miero) is about two feet long and four inches wide, narrowing at each extremity; at the handle is fixed a piece of gum (wank), in which is inserted a sharp edged stone (tannela), which is used to scrape the point of the spear when blunted by use. At the outer end of the mecro is a small wooden peg (picota), which is inserted into a hole at the end of the spear, and by which it is propelled. The miero is also used at close quarters in their fights.

The hammer (uguadu) is made with a lump of gum having two stones imbedded in it, stuck on to the extremity of a short stick; it is used in climbing trees, in throwing at and killing animals, in breaking down grass trees, and for the common purposes of axe and hammer.

The knife (tapo), is a stick with sharp edged stones fixed in a bed of gum, at the end and for two or three inches down the side, forming a serrated instrument. The koilee, or boomering, is seldom used as a weapon, but for skinning the kangaroo, and also for amusement; some are curiously carved.

Their wigwams (boorno) are merely composed of a few small twigs stuck in the ground, and bent over in the form of a bower, about four feet high and five or six wide. They thatch them slightly with the leaves of the grass tree; in rainy weather they are roofed with pieces of bark, upon which stones are placed to secure them from being blown away; but they afford a miserable protection from the weather. They