282 T. DICK. 



ORIGIN OP THE HELIMAN OR SHIELD OF THE NEW 

 SOUTH WALES COAST ABORIGINES. 



c 



By Thomas Dick. 



(Communicated by Mr. R. T. Baker, f.l.s.) 



[With Plates XLVII - LI.] 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, November 3, 1915 '„] 



Introduction. 

 The heliman or shield was a weapon of defense, perhaps 

 the principal one, of the natives of this continent. It had 

 different names, according to the locality of origin, but 

 heliman was the most common ; nor was its shape restricted 

 to one special form. The wood from which it was made 

 had to possess certain qualities, such as hardness and 

 strength, and what was of great importance to these men 

 of the Stone Age, it had to come away readily from the 

 parent tree. 



The observations recorded in this paper show that the 

 wood of the Grey Mangrove, Avicennia officinalis, Linn, 

 possessed these qualities in a marked degree, and so this 

 tree was selected above all others by the aborigines for 

 the manufacture of their shields, as can now be seen by 

 the scars on the living trees of the Port Macquarie District. 

 A very limited number of other trees appear to have been 

 employed for this special article, for only one or two are 

 known along the coast, viz., the Fig, (Ficus sp.), and the 

 " Stinging Tree," (Laportea gigas). But these trees do not 

 appear to have been used when a suitable Avicennia was 

 near at hand, in fact, from my observations, I should say 

 that probably only when this Mangrove had been worked 

 out, did the natives turn to other sources of supply. The 



