Eruermce—Some [uplements, etc., of the Alligator Tribe, Port Essington. 241 
with an incised band on the pyriform enlargement. It is one foot nine inches m 
length. Lumholtz figures* a Aox-nung similar to this weapon, but pointed at both 
ends, from near Rockhampton. Strictly speaking, these are not Mz/la-nudllas, 
although frequently called so. This term is one in use on the Lower Murray, for 
a weapon made from a small sapling, with the root fashioned into a formidable knob, 
and answers very much better to what we term a bludgeon. 
Cuuss. 
The MJattinat of the Mackay District is a most formidable club-shaped weapon, 
bearing at the distal end a coronet of wooden nail-like projections.{ I apply this name, 
for the want of knowing that given by the Alligator River Blacks, to similar offensive 
weapons used by them. In one instance (PI. xxx. fig. 6), the coronet consists of 
twelve rows of projections, eight in a row, the stick itself being stained black and 
pointed at both ends. The proximal end is grooved. The length of this instrument 
is two feet three and a-half inches, and the weight one pound five ounces. 
In another specimen, the coronet consists of sixteen rows, five projections in a 
row, and whitened, the remainder coloured red. It is two feet three and a-half 
inches long, and weighs one pound five ounces. 
A perfectly similar weapon in use on the Burdekin River, is figured by Smyth, 
and was also seen at Herbert Vale, Central Queensland, by Lumbholtz.§ There is 
also a curious general resemblance between the J/attina and clubs used in the 
Portuguese Colonies of the Mozambique.(|j 
SHIELD. 
The only shield in the collection is after the type of the Goolmarry’ of the 
Mackay District, but quite unlike the large irregularly oval light shields of Eastern 
Central Queensland. The present example is elliptical in shape, two feet one inch 
long, and seven and a-quarter inches wide, weighing two pounds four ounces. The 
apices, both on the outer and inner sides, are stripped of the outer woody layer, 
exposing the grain. On the convex outside there is a longitudinal median incised 
* Amongst Cannibals, 1890, p. 73, f. « 
+ Smyth, Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, I. p. 300, f. 59. 
+ The practice of adapting articles of civilized manufacture by the Blacks is well exemplified in the case of some of 
these clubs in the Ethnological Gallery of the Australian Museum. Instead of the projections being carved out of the 
wood, as in the present case, they are made by inserting horse-shoe nails. 
§ Amongst Cannibals, 1890, p. 73, f. b. 
|| Knight, Ann. Report Smithsonian Inst. for 1879 [1880], p. 217, f. 2. 
‘| Aborigines of Victoria, 1878, p. 334, f. 138. 
GG 
