PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 501 
yiki-yiki of the Bloomfield is taught at the initiation per- 
formances. 
fluman Actions— arfare.—Wherever blacks are to be 
met with, the little boys indulge in aping the arts of war as 
practised by their elders. The miniature weapons so em- 
ployed are either manufactured for them by their older male 
relatives and friends, or else designed by themselves. Toy 
spears are thus made from light thin withes or else from 
grasses, reeds, and rushes, ¢.g., Andropogon schenanthus, 
Imperata sp. They are held at their lighter ends, and 
thrown either with the hand held as in Pl. XXVIII., 3, 
{which, it should be noted, is held differently to the fighting 
weapon], or with the toy wommera. The latter can be made 
of a piece of wood, with a flattened projection at its 
extremity, on lines identical with the full-sized article as 
met with among the Wellesley Islanders and coastal blacks 
westward of Burketown (PI. XXVIII., 4). In other cases 
(e.g., from Cape Grafton up to Princess Charlotte Bay), the 
toy wommera can be manufactured from a rush by splitting 
its end, removing the pith from one of the split halves, and 
tying the cortex in a loop round the other ; the loop retains 
the reed-spear in position (Pl. XXVIII., 5). Another kind 
of toy spear has so far been observed (A. Buhot) only among 
the coastal blacks to the west of Burketown, and at Wol- 
logorang (Northern Territory border). It consists but of a 
straight withe from 24 to 3 feet long, more or less pointed at 
its extremity, and projected with a string which is prevented 
slipping by the friction presented by a knot. Pl. XXVIII., 
6, 7, will explain matters more graphically. The question 
naturally arises as to whether the string, thus used, is a 
primitive condition, or only an adaptation, of that highly- 
specialised implement, the wommera, or spear-thrower. In 
those districts where shields are employed by the adults, 
these may be imitated on smaller scale, and often with 
similar ornamentation, out of convenient pieces of bark, &ec. 
As will be stated further on, there appears to be some doubt 
as to whether the toy-boomerang is really imitative of the 
fighting article, and its description is accordingly deferred 
till later on. 
The regular tournaments which take place in the Cardwell 
and Tully River scrubs require more than passing notice. 
To the Mallanpara blacks this institution is known as the 
Prun. It is essentially an entertainment—though the op- 
portunity may be taken of wiping off old scores, and so 
settling disputes, either real or imaginary-—and gives the 
men a chance of showing off their prowess and courage be- 
fore the women. 
