'IAH records of the australiax museum. 



formidable weapons. Some of the spears made by the Narrinyeri 

 are barbed with spicules of Hint. They are called nipralkaipnri 

 or deadly spears." 



Mr. W. E. 8tanbri(lge gi^"es a brief account of the barbed spear 

 as follows'-- : — " The light spear is about nine feet long and is 

 either a reed having at the end a pointed piece of hard wood, 

 about two feet long, secured to the reed by cement and a binding of 

 sinews, or a thin sapling scraped to the required size with a shell, 

 straightened and hardened by being passed through hot ashes, 

 with a piece of the flower stem of the grass tree foi- the butt. In 

 summer the spears are bai-bed for about eight inches, at the 

 points, with small pieces of flint fixed in cement." 



Sir T. L. Mitchell--' mentions the discovery in a hut used as a 

 casual habitation near Mount Arapiles, of a numbei' of "jagged 

 spears, some of them set with flints." 



Similar chips are also jjut to quite fi diffei'ent pui-pose, for Capt. 

 P. P. King described and figured-^ a peculiar knife or saw. " The 

 knife or ' taap ' is perhaps the rudest instrument of the sort ever 

 made ; the handle is about twelve inches long, scraped to a point, 

 and has at the distal end, three or four splinters of sharp-edged 

 quartz stuck on in a row with gum, thus forming a sort of jagged 

 instrument. . . . It is thus used : after they have put within their 

 teeth a sufticient mouthful of seal's flesh, the remainder is held in 

 their left hand, and, with the ' taaj) ' in the other, they saw through 

 and separate the flesh. Every natiAC carries one or more of these 

 knives in his belt besides the hammer, which is also an indispen- 

 sable instrument with them. " In a footnote he further remarks that 

 the natives of King George Sound "hold the knife underhanded, and 

 cut upwards." A modification of this knife, or saw, occurs on the 

 north-east coast of the continent, by the replacement of the stone 

 chips with small shark's teeth.-' 



No. VIII. — Plate xliii.. Group 2. 



Numerous adze-like instruments wei'e obtained, these are 

 generally clean cut, but some exhibit flaking and chipping to 



*^ Staiibridge— Trans. Etlinol. Sot-., (n.s.), i., 1861, p. 292. 



-•^ Mitchell — Three Exjieditions into the Interior of East. Australia, ii., 



1 H37, p. 193 ; Evre — Jnls. of Expeditions of Discovery into Cent. 



Australia, i., 1845", p. 269. . 

 -'' King- Surrev ot the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia, ii., 



1827, p. 139-40 fig. 

 -■"' Partington- Tilbiun, 3rd series, pi. 129, f. 1 ; Etheridge — Rec. Austr. 



Mils., iv., 5, 1902, p. 207, pi. xxxvi. 



