210 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



straight line joining the two extremities of this particular speci- 

 men 62 measured forty-six inches, while the greatest width of the 

 blade, with equally convex sides, was three and a half inches; it 

 was made of brigalow. Lumlioltz figures"' 1 one of these, and 

 says it is usually covered with cross-bars of chalk. The two- 

 handed swords of the North-West Districts have already been 

 described'" 1 4 . 



'M. Single-handed swords are met with in the Cardwell and 

 Bloom field Districts. On the Lower Tully River this weapon, 

 the barkur (PI. lxi., fig. 16), is made from Myrtus exaltata, Bail. 

 (MAL. yambi), and from another tree which I have not been 

 able to identify. Such a tree of about six inches in diameter is 

 cut off at the butt and felled, the length required removed, and 

 then split down the centre (PI. lxi., fig. 17). A slab can 

 then be taken from either half (PI. lxi., fig. 18), and chipped 

 to shape. The shape of weapon thus follows the shape of the 

 tree, straight or bent ; the straighter it is the more preferable it 

 would appear to be. To make the handle a cut is made into 

 either side of tlie slab, which is then split ; fibre twine is finally 

 wound round the handle and covered with beeswax. One edge is 

 as a rule sharper than the other, but both edges can be used for 

 cutting ; if the weapon has a distinct hend or curve, it is the con- 

 vex edge which is apparently only used, but if straight, both are 

 used, and the whole may be uniformly raddled. The proximal or 

 handle-end amongst these Mallanpara Blacks is known as mura, 

 and the distal extremity ngorn, a term signifying the forehead. 

 It is from four and a half to five feet in length, and always used 

 with the one hand stretched over the shoulder, the weapon hang- 

 ing behind the back, and brought forward from above down with 

 a more or less sudden jerk ; well directed, a blow from it can split 

 a man's skull. This weapon used to be manufactured on the 

 Bloomtield River, but now (1898) only occasionally by the old 

 men. The Koko-yellanji Natives here call it worran. 



33. ^ TfJ 'y little reliable information is to hand as to the 

 metho Is ami procedure adopted in cases of one tribe fighting with 

 another collectively; indeed, the progress of settlement and 

 opening up of the country has rendered warfare such a compara- 

 tively rare institution nowadays, as to limit it to districts, e.g., 

 portions of the Gulf Coast-line not ordinarily accessible to 

 European observers. What was observed in the Boulia District 



62 Since presented to the Queensland Museum, Brisbane. 

 •'••'Lumholtz— Among Cannibals, 1890, pp. 332,334, lig. on l.h. -(Ed.) 

 Roth— Ethnol. Studies, etc.. 18— Sect. 245. 



