NORTH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGRAPHY ROTH 195 



(a) The worurnera-spear is built of two pieces, the proximal 

 longer than the distal ; the former is made of grass-tree (MAL. 

 pi-ran) or Eupomatia laurina, R.Br. (MAL. mu-jir), the latter 

 from a split Archontophcenix alexandra;, Wendl. (MAL. kopan- 

 gara), Ptychosperma elegans, Blume. (MAL. warkai), or from a 

 sapling of Mj/rtus exaltata, Bail. (MAL. yambi). Stingaree-barbs 

 may beattached or not ; if present, the spear is called a warra- 

 katcha, and its distal extremity covered with red and white rings, 

 but if not present, this extremity is smeared with a uniform red. 

 It is used for fighting purposes, and for spearing wallabies. 



(b) The chukaji is a hand-spear, formed of a single piece of 

 local " hard-wood " (MAL. pindanyo), obtained only from Mount 

 .Maekay, either cut out from, or a sapling itself of, the tree. Its 

 proximal end is pointed, but of course not so sharp as the distal. 

 From aoout five to eight to nine feet in length. It is this spear 

 which is used by the four gins at the Prim ground 1 ' 1 , and also 

 employed by men for fighting. 



(c) The warkai, also thrown without a wommera, is so named 

 from the black-palm (Ptychosperma elegavs, Blume.), out of 

 which it is split, and is mostly used for spearing eels and other 

 fish. 



(d) The wi-valli is another hand-spear also cut out of one 

 piece, seven to eight feet long, heavy, clumsily made, and the 

 only spear having a spatulate tip, the latter being covered with 

 ngobi 14 gum; the butt-end tapers somewhat. Made of local 

 "hard-wood" (Myrtus exaltata, Bail.), or another timber known 

 as yalma. 



6. In the Rockhampton District, where I made my enquiries 

 in 1897, the spears met with were of the simple (single-piece) 

 acicular type, about seven to eight and a-half feet long, with the 

 butt ending in a sharp abrupt point ; any marked shortening 

 than this was due in all probability to the weapon having been 

 broken, and subsequently sharpened up again. The weapon was 

 always thrown with the hand, no spear-throwers being known 

 here, as well as all up the coast-line certainly as far north as 

 Townsville. Its manufacture consists in cutting it out in its 

 entirety from a " wattle "-core, or from an outer strip of 

 " brigalow " or " rose-wood." Sometimes, just previous to a fight, 

 a barb or two, placed oppositely, might be fixed on with twine 

 and cement-substance at some considerable distance from the tip 

 (Pl.lviii., fig. 8 ). At Glenroy, on the Upper Fitzroy River, I saw a 



l3 Roth— Bull. 4— Sec. 15. 



Melicope australasica, F.v.M. See Bull. 7 — Sect. 13. 



