Eruertince— Some Implements, etc., of the Alligator Tribe, Port Essington. 233 
HKyre gives a good figure* of this form of spear in general, and terms it simply 
‘war spear of the North Coast,” with a total length of nine and a-half feet, the barbed 
head being three feet. SsSomewhat analogous spears are figured by Smytht under the 
name of Vandum, but he does not definitely localise them. He, however, remarks 
that “great skill, patience, and care are necessary so as to fashion the barbs of the 
Nandum neatly and to keep them whole.” 
The largest of these spears in the collection is nine feet six inches long and the 
head two feet six inches more. 
A. third form again possesses the general features of the preceding weapons, 
with wide apart barbs, but the backs of the heads are flat, notched down each edge 
(PL xxx1. fig. 1), and whitened with pipeclay. The gum-cement hafting bears spirally 
arranged lines. 
The spears barbed on one side of the head.only are naturally followed by those 
in which both sides are similarly toothed, in other words, bilaterally symmetrical. 
The shafts are of reed, ruddled or uncoloured, and the nodes sometimes whitened 
with pipeclay. The gum-cement may be simply black, its natural colour, black with 
diagonal white lines, wholly white, or red with successive white circles. There are 
four types :— 
1. Head very short and strong, with stout barbs. Shaft eight feet three inches; 
head eleven inches. 
2. Head similar, with the six central pairs of barbs far apart, but the proximal 
and distal barbs close together, and more in the form of gigantic serrations 
(Pl. xxx fig. 2). The central barbs are slightly curved, the others 
standing out horizontally, the proximal being more regularly formed than 
the distal or apical. 
. Head long, with long recurved and far apart barbs, but the distance varying 
in individual spears. The distal barbs are truncate, with an apical 
lanceolate barb (PI. xxx. fig. 3). Shaft seven feet six inches ; head two 
feet three inches. 
4, Similar to No. 3, but the distal three inches of the head with serrations, 
instead of barbs, the latter themselves very far apart, much recurved and 
sub-pointed (PI. xxxt. fig. 4). 
ivy) 
The central barbs of Pl. xxx. fig. 2, No. 2 type, and all those of Pl. xxxu. fig. 5, 
No. 3 type, are after the pattern of a spear figuredt{ by Smyth, without locality, but 
* Journ. Exped. Discovery Central Australia, 1845, IT. t. 6, f. 1. 
+ Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I. p. 305, f. 71-74. 
} Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I. p. 304, f. 70. 
FF 
