Erurripge—Some /iplements, etc., of the Alligator Tribe, Port Essington. 235 
“ North Coast,” the barbed head being eighteen inches in length. Smyth* likewise 
records it from Port Essington, where he says it is called P2Z/ara, and also mentions 
its use four hundred miles north of Perth, West Australia. With the exception 
of the AZZ-e7tch, or stone-headed spear, this is probably about the ugliest weapon, in 
the shape of a spear, used in this part of the Continent. According to Hardman,*t 
however, the true P7/ava, which is confined to the Murchison and Gaskoyne 
Districts, “is a wooden spear of a formidable nature. The head is about two feet 
long, of triangular shape, like a bayonet, but on each edge has been carved a series 
of barbs, pointing backwards.” As Mr. Hardman travelled extensively in West 
Australia, | think we must accept his definition of the P7//ava spear before that of 
Mr. Smyth. 
Fish spears are represented by one type (Pl. xxxr. fig. 5), treble-pronged as usual. 
The shaft in this case is also a reed, ruddled, whipped proximally with twine, and the 
hardwood prongs held in position by the latter and gum-cement, whitened with 
ro) fo) ’ 
pipeclay. The prongs are rounded on the back, and set ma triangle, so as to follow 
one another consecutively. The barbs are large proximally, lessening in size upwards 
a fo) fo) ? 
wide apart, and recurved. The shaft is seven feet four inches long, and the head one 
foot eight inches. Both Knight} and Eyre illustrate this spear, the latter calling it 
the “fish spear of the North Coast,” with a shaft eight and three-quarter feet long. 
5 oD 
It differs essentially from Gowdadie,|| the fishing spear of the Murray River, which 


consists of three plain diverging prongs, sharpened to an acute point. It is fifteen 
feet long. Our implement is certainly more akin to a four-pronged spear used for a 
like purpose in West Australia, or at any rate supposed to be in use there, for 
Smyth throws some doubt on the matter by suggesting that his example may have 
come from Port Darwin! The barbed nature of the prongs favours this view. 
W oMERAHS. 
I have lately described the northern womerahs in so much detail that very little 
remains to be said. There are three types present in the collection. 
The first is the important Ovro-korr-ok or sabre-like womerah.** Two are 
nearly straight, but a third is much more curved, indicating therefore a form of 
variation which has to be looked for in examining these weapons. The largest, three 
* Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I. p. 337, f. 144. 
+ Proc. R. Irish Acad., 1888, I. (3), No. 1, p. 65. 
+ Ann. Report Smithsonian Inst. for 1879 [1880], p. 266, f. 94. 
§ Journ. Exped. Discovery Central Australia, 1845, IT. t. 6. f. 2. 
|| Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I. p. 306, f. 79. 
{’ Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I. p. 338, f. 145. 
** P.L.S.N.S.W., 1892, VII. (2), Pt. 1, p. 170, t. 3. 
