399 



MODIFICATIONS OF THE BILLETTA OR GNALEALING 

 WOMERAH. 



By R. Etheridge, Junr. 



(Pal.eontologist to the Australian Museum, and Geological 

 Survey of N. S. Wales). 



(Plate XI.) 



The comparative study of the weapons and implements of our 

 Aborigines reveals to the student, more and more, how intimately 

 connected are the questions of form and local distribution; and by 

 none is this better exemplified than the Womerahs. 



We have seen how the " Lath-shaped " Womerah, for the want 

 of a more correct name, is distributed (and perhaps confined %) in 

 the Cape York Peninsula*; and the " Sword-like" Womerah in the 

 Port Darwin District.! I am now able to extend the range of 

 this weapon, thanks to information supplied by Mr. Harry 

 Stockdale, to the Port Essington District, where it is called by the 

 Aborigines Orrok-orrok. 



I now purpose bringing under your notice some notes on the 

 Billetta Womerah, as it is termed by the Port Essington natives, 

 or Gnalealing by the Kimberley blacks, derived from examples in 

 the Macleay Museum, to which I was obligingly given access by 

 the Curator, Mr. G. Masters, thus showing the use of this womerah 

 to have existed from Port Darwin to Derby and King's Sound. 



In addition to general shape, the Billetta is chiefly distinguished 

 by the emarginated handle at the proximal end for the reception 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1892, vi. (2), Pt. 4, p. 699. 

 t Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1892, vii. (2), Pt. 1, p. 170. 



