266 SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



5. 



The Australian spears are of various qualities and shapes : a sharp- 

 ened stick (nandum) with notches for barbs; u9 a spear with a separate 

 head of hard miall wood deeply cut with barbs, and fastened to a reed 

 (phragmetes communis) shaft; 150 one with a basalt or quartzite head 

 lashed to the shaft with sinews from the tail of the kangaroo, 1 ' 1 with 

 long projecting barbs on each side, curiously formed from hard wood, 1 ' 2 

 a single bone lashed to the head and projecting laterally and back- 

 wardly from the point so as to form a barb ; the mongile, a head armed 

 with sharp basalt or quartzite flakes set with pid-jer-ong gum ; 153 one with 

 a head piece of bone which is lashed to the shaft so that its respective 

 ends form point and barb ; 1M lastly, leisters with from two to four barbed 

 points, 155 and from G to 15 feet long. 



The flower stalk of the grass-tree furnishes the spear-shaft, which is 

 9 or 10 feet long. Fig. 93 shows two South Australian spears, one 

 with a double set of inserted barbs made of obsidian or 

 quartz, and a kangaroo spear with a wooden head 30 

 inches long, and a single row of barbs; 

 the shaft is 8 feet long. Fig. 94 

 shows two fish-spears, one with two 

 prongs and the other with three. 

 The prongs of hard and tough gum- 

 tree wood are tapered towards each 

 end, pointed, and barbed ; their butt- 

 ends are then inserted in notches on 

 the end of the shaft and held in po- 

 sition by black-boy gum, while the 

 prongs are spread apart by wedges 

 driven between them. The prongs 

 are then lashed with sinews. The 

 Australian has a blade on the end 

 of his spear to act as a paddle as he 

 stands in his dug-out canoe and 

 watches the water or quietly moves 

 from place to place. The night is 



the favorite time for fish.- Spearing, a Fig. 94 — Australian wooden 



jishingsjjears (leisters.) 



fire being made on a bed of wot sand 

 and stones in the bottom of the canoe. The natives also carry torches 

 of inflammable bark; this mode of fishing is common in North America 

 and in Scotland, called "burning the water" in the former, and "leis- 

 tering" in the latter. 



149 R. Brough Smith, "Aborigines 1 of Victoria," vol. i, p. 304, Fig. 71-74. 



™Ibid., vol. i,p. :ii)r). Figs. 75,76. 



[ ■•' Ibid . vol. i,i». 308, Fig. 85. 



'« Ibid., vol. i. Pigs. pp. 69, 70, and i, 308, Fig. 84. 



I "*'< Ibid., vol. i, p. 3iU. Fig. 68, andi, 336, Fig. 141. 



'■' I hid., vol. i, p. 306, Fig. 77, 78. 



Ibid., vol. i, p. 306, Figs. 7 ( J, 80, p. 337, Fig. Ml et al. See also PI. iv, ami pp. 33-5 

 Nilson'.s '• Stone Age." 



I, 

 I 



Fig. 93. — .1 ustralian 

 wood< a spears. 



