373 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. R. Etheridge, Junr., exhibited the three aboriginal 

 mortuary caps described in his paper. Also a remarkable spear 

 with the following 



'O 



Note on a '•'• Musical Spear. ^^ 



When classifying the collection of Pacific Island Spears at 

 present unexhibited in the Australian Museum from want of 

 space, one in particular attracted my attention by the production 

 of a rattling noise when the weapon was shaken or placed in any 

 other position than that of the vertical, butt downwards. The 

 spear in question is seven and a half feet long, with a heavy palm 

 wood shaft, and a bamboo butt, two feet six inches in length, and 

 one inch in diameter. In the piece of bamboo are retained two 

 nodes and three inter nodes, and the exterior is ornamented with 

 burnt-incised figures. The noise was observed to proceed from 

 the interior of the butt, and a further examination revealed the 

 fact that the hollow interior of the bamboo to the first node, a 

 length of six inches, was utilised as a box or receptacle for 

 twenty small limestone pebbles, the orifice being closed with a 

 wad of twisted leaves. When the spear is poised and shaken, with 

 the pebbles in situ, a pleasing rattle-like noise is produced. It is 

 from New Ireland. 



Mr. Baker exhibited herbarium specimens, timbers, oils, 

 camphor, and kinos, of the Eucalypts described in his paper. 

 Also a " native yam " from Angledool (on the Queensland border) 

 forwarded by Mr. A. Paddison. It weighs 8^ lbs., and measures 

 12 inches in length, and 6 in diameter; 30 lbs. weight of these 

 yams were yielded by a single vine. The botanical material 

 forwarded shows the plant to be a twiner and an undescribed 

 species of Lyonsia \^Parsonsia ; see p. 3861. The tubers are 

 eaten by both colonists and aboriginals. This is the first record 

 of an edible "yam " from an Australian Asclepiad. 



