Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/377

Rh Fred asked what kind of weapons they used in fighting with one another or attacking the Europeans.

"Their principal weapon for close work," said Mr. Watson, "is the waddy, or club. It is a heavy club made of hard-wood, and has a knob at the end of the handle for greater security of grasp. Etiquette requires that blows with the waddy should be aimed only at the head; to strike any other part of the body with it would not be fair. The form of the weapon differs with different tribes, so that it is possible sometimes to learn to what tribe a party belongs by looking at their clubs. Some tribes have wooden swords about three feet long, which they handle very skilfully.

"They are expert in throwing spears, which they launch very accurately for distances of thirty or forty yards. Sometimes their spears are a single piece of hard-wood tipped with bone, iron, or sharp stone; other spears have heads of hard-wood, while the shaft is a light reed which grows abundantly on the banks of most of the rivers of Australia. The spears vary from six to eleven feet in length; I have seen spears fifteen feet long, but they were intended for fishing, and not for war, though they were often used for fighting purposes.