BY R. ETHERIDGE, JUN. 171 



the womerah was obtained he made a trip from Sydney to the 

 Torres Straits Islands, thence westward round Dutch New Guinea 

 to the Admiralty Islands, and back to Sydney. 



It, therefore, became of importance to determine from what 

 part of the Continent this weapon came. One naturally turns in 

 the first instance for information to the late R. Brough Smyth's 

 tine work on the " Aborigines of Victoria ;"* failing that to the 

 excellent illustrations given in Governor Eyre's " Journals of 

 Expeditions of Discovery into Central Austx-alia." f In neither 

 of these works is any figure of the present womerah given ; but 

 on appealing to the valuable Macleay Collection at the University, 

 with the aid of the Curator, Mr. G. Masters, three perfectly 

 similar weapons were unearthed, and all labelled Port Darwin. 

 So much for the district in which this form of throwing-stick is 

 employed. Further researches amongst other works failed to 

 find any description of such an implement as the present, but in 

 Knight's " Study of the Savage Weapons at the Centennial 

 Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876," | are two rough figures, without 

 explanations, of *' Spear-throwing Sticks, South Australia," one of 

 them with a general resemblance to our womerah, but without 

 any detail displayed. South Australia, with the light thrown 

 upon the subject by the Macleay Museum specimens, must be an 

 error, for the throwing-stick s of the southern portion of Australia 

 are quite of a different type. 



The womerah is lath-like and slightly curved, although for the 

 first two feet from the handle it is straight, the curvature then 

 liecoming gradually marked, and the blade attenuating to a sharp 

 point at the outer end. The total length is three feet nine inches, 

 and two and a quarter inches wide at the lower or proximal end, 

 and just above the hand hold. The blade is one-sixth of an inch 



* The Aborigines of Victoria, 2 vols. (4to., Melbourne, 1878 : Govern- 

 ment Printer.) 



t Two vols. (Svo., London, 1845.) 



:;: Ann. Report Board Regents Smithsonian Inst, for 1879 [1880], p. 276, 

 f. 117. 



