SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 285 



133.— Chinese shield of basket-work. (Inside.) 



y< 



All have hand-holds, made out of the solid, and the weight is from 2^ to 

 3i pounds. A variety of sizes and some variation of patterns are shown 



in Figs. 113-120 



of his work. 207 

 The heUamon 



(gee-am), or war 



shield, used by the 



aborigines of New 



South Wales, is 



2 feet long, 10 



inches broad, and 



usually made from 



a solid block of 



wood, though 



sometimes from 



bark. The de- 

 pression and 



hand - grasp are 



carved out of the 



wood. That shown in Fig. 135 is made from the wood of 



the gigantic nettle-tree. In other parts of Australia the 



bark of some one of the numerous 



species of gum is bent to form by 



the application of heat, and a han- 

 dle or arm-bow is lashed on. The 



shape is usually a long oval, but 



some are of a diamond shape. The 



bark shield is called muldbdkka. 



The Murray River blacks make 



canoes, by means of this bending 



process, from the bark of the tea- 

 tree (melaleuca, i. e., black and 



white), and from various species 



of eucalypti . 



In the work just referred to, 208 the 



larger shield, for general protec- 

 tion, isspoken of as generally made 



of green bark, which is curved by 



Tic. 134.— Tower- , . ,, , 



anp or parrying laying it upon an earthen mound 



siiirbl of Autitra- e j.i • i 1 i 



?,„. of the required shape, covered 



with hot embers ; the bark is laid thereon and 

 weighted with stones, it lias a hand grasp of 

 the original wood, or one is inserted. The size 

 is 38 by 10 indies. 



The Victoria section of the Australian department showed shields of 



Fig. 135. — HeUamon or war- 

 shield of New South Wales. 



207 Aborigines of Victoria, Melbourne, I878j p. 300 et seq. 

 208 Ibid., p. 382, Figs. 131-139. 



