NORTH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGRAPHY — ROTH. 197 



bending, etc , as required, blacked it all over in the fire and 

 finally hardened the point by the same means. This pi-lar was 

 made from nine to ten feet long, and used for fighting at close 

 quarters. Sometimes old ones were nicked very nearly through, 

 about two inches from the tip, for some fellow they had a special 

 "down" on, so that when stuck in, it would break off and 

 remain behind. At other occasions one or two stingaree barbs 

 might be stuck on with beeswax and twine for a similar purpose. 



(b) The kannai was made from a young sapling of a certain 

 scrub-wood, chosen to about the size required, the bark must be 

 scraped off, and then pointed. Used for fighting and hunting ; 

 and just before a tight bundles of these would be collected from 

 the scrubs. It was blacked all over in the fire, as in the case of 

 the pi-lar, and hardened at the point, the last twelve inches or so 

 of which was finally scraped quite white ; this was done to enable 

 one to see it coming when thrown. Sometimes the tip might be 

 left blunted, when three or four prongs, each from six to seven 

 inches long, would be attached to it, the weapon being then used 

 for purposes of fishing. 



(c) The rose-wood timber spears, not manufactured here, but 

 bartered from the Ipswich Blacks, were also called pi-lar, and 

 used similarly for fighting at close quarters. 



8. Spear throwers (wommeras) were absent in the eastern 

 coastal districts, extending from Townsville to Rockhampton, and 

 were unknown in Brisbane (T. Petrie), but they w^eie present in 

 the area around what is now Charters Towers. In their most 

 primitive form of a hooked stick (PI. lviii.. fig, 1-1) the}' are met 

 with in the Wellesley Islands and neighbouring mainland. 



9. Wommeras on the Pennefather River are known bv the 

 general name of arai-i 1 ~ . Used both as a spear-guard and as aspear- 

 thrower. The blade (PI. lviii., fig. 15) varies greatly in width, but 

 with greater width there has, of course, tobeacorrespondingly larger 

 peg ; greater width, however, is not considered an advantage. 

 It is manufactured from five different timbers: — Erythrophlceum 

 laboucherii, F.v.M. (NGG. nau-muta, " iron-wood "), Acacia rothii, 

 Bail. (NGG. lar), Mimusops parvifolia, Linn. (NGG. ngo-ru), 

 Eucalyptus terminalis, Sieb. (NGG. rar-ru), and Aglaia elmag- 

 noidea, Benth. (NGG. andro-e). To prevent the timber from 

 splitting after being cut from the tree it may be buried in the 

 ground for two or three months before anything further is done 



17 Further down the Gulf coast-line between the Mitchell and Staaten 

 Bivers the Gunanni call them yur-nganya. 



