34 



AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



these. We brought with us, on our return, a couple 

 of these missiles, as also two or three boomerangs, 

 some of which had seen service as pagan instruments 

 of destruction. 



The most useful of all instruments to the native is 

 his tomahawk, or hatchet. Its head is a hard stone, 



SHIELDS USED BY THE NATIVES. 



which must be reduced to proper shape by knocking 

 off flakes, and grinding. A withe or stem of a creeper 

 is flattened, heated in the ashes, then drawn tightly 

 round the stone and fastened with string or thongs 

 and gum. With his tomahawk the black cuts his 

 shield, his club, strips bark, constructs his hut, makes 

 his canoe, cuts out the wild honey from the branches 



