18 BOWS, AEROWS, SPEARS, 



and sometimes barbed. The Kowrareg-as obtain 

 bows and arrows from their northern neighbours, 

 and occasionally use them in warfare, but prefer the 

 spears which are made by the blacks of the main- 

 land. We saw three kinds of spear at Cape York ; 

 one is merely a sharpened stick used for striking fish, 

 the two others, tipped and barbed with bone, are 

 used in war. The principal spear (kalak or alka) 

 measures about nine feet in lengih, two-thirds of 

 which are made of she-oak or casuarina, hard and 

 heavy, and the remaining third of a soft and very 

 light wood ; one end has a small hollow to receive 

 the knob of the thro wing-stick, and to the other the 

 leg-bone of a kangaroo six inches long, sharpened 

 at each end, is secured in such a manner as to fur- 

 nish a sharp point to the spear and a long barb 

 besides. Another spear, occasionally used in fight- 

 ing, has three or four heads of wood each of which 

 is tipped and barbed with a smaller bone than is 

 used for the halak. 



The throwing-stick in use at Cape York extends 

 down the N.E. coast at least as far as Lizard Island j 

 it differs from those in use in other parts of Aus- 

 traha in having the projecting knob for fitting into 

 the end of the spear parallel with the plane of the 

 stick and not at right angles. It is made of casua- 

 rina wood, and is generally three feet in length, 

 an inch and a quarter broad, and half an inch thick. 

 At the end a double slip of melon shell, three and a 

 half inches long, crossing diagonally, serves as a 



