BY WALTER E. ROTH, M.R.C.S., B.A., OXON. 67 



Opossum string was manufactured as follows, and by the 

 males only: From a heap of opossum hair well rubbed together, 

 at his left side, the operator would pick up a piece, roll it up 

 and down his left outer thigh, in squatting position, with corre- 

 sponding hand, and, fixing it length to length, roll the string so 

 formed on to a distaff with his right hand. This distaff was 

 formed of two round pieces of stick, each about 3 inches long, 

 tied crosswise, the shape of a cross. The string itself was of 

 single strand, and not in any sense too strong. They further 

 used for sewing purposes, when sinews, etc., were not available, 

 a piece of jointless rush, a very tough kind of wire-grass without 

 any blades on it. Austin never saw any human hair per se used 

 as string, but often observed them employing longish strands 

 of it, mixed with grass-tree gum, for fixing the sharpened shell 

 into their wommeras, the barbs on to their spears, etc.. The 

 fixing process in these cases consisted in tying first of all with 

 hair, then covering with a coating of gum, and heating ; again 

 more hair, more gum, heat, and so on. 



Up to the time of the advent of the Europeans they never 

 manufactured nets. The nearest approach to anything of this 

 sort was the basket-work arrangement at the end of a wallaby 

 drive, formed of thin sticks stuck into the ground, and then 

 wattled horizontally in and out with rushes. 



The dilly-bag (go-ta) was used by the women only, slung 

 up by a piece of string, and carried round the neck, so as to 

 hang down over the back. It was formed of a long piece of 

 dressed kangaroo skin, folded over, and sewn at the sides, leav- 

 ing just a slight cover. 



Omitting for the present the specially-constructed weapon 

 for catching emu, these people had three varieties of spear — 

 ked-ji, all made from a very hard and straight wattle, the tim- 

 ber of which gave the name to the instrument ; the process of 

 manufacture was simple, the sapling being just stripped of its 

 bark, which left it a bit " ribby," then scraped where necessary, 

 and subsequently straightened by holding it over some heated 

 ashes, and bending it with the teeth and hands into the required 

 shape. They were all about 10 feet long, and from ^ inch to 

 -| inch in diameter, with a rounded point about 6 inches long, 

 and invariably thrown with the wommera. Such a one consti- 

 tuted a fish-spear. The quartz-spear bore along a vertical 

 length of the tip numerous pieces of quartz crystal, subsequently 



