1837.] Account of the New Colony of Western Australia. olf 



also used for the same purpose. They are very careful to preserve this, 

 and will even kindle a fire by friction, or otherwise, to revive it. Their 

 weapons consist of spears of two or three kinds, which are propelled 

 with a throwing stick (meero). They have also a knife (tapo), stone 

 hammer (ugardee), and curl feoilee, or curved flat weapon, similar to 

 the bomerang of the New South Wales natives. 



The spears (gudye) are made of a long slender stick, about the 

 thickness of a finger, of a heavy tough quality, supposed to be the 

 black wattle ; they are scraped down to a very fine point, and are 

 hardened and straightened by the assistance of fire. Those intended 

 for hunting and fishing, called moongaul, are barbed with a 

 piece of wood fastened on very neatly and firmly with kangaroo 

 sinew (peat), and the ligature covered with gum obtained 

 from the grass tree. They are about eight feet in length ; the war 

 spears are longer and heavier, and are armed, for five or six inches 

 from the point, with pieces of sharp stones fixed in gum, resembling 

 the teeth of a saw, the stones increasing in size, the smallest being at 

 the point ; glass has been substituted for the stones where broken 

 bottles have been found ; each man carries from two to five spears. 



The throwing stick (micro) is about two feet long and four inches 

 wide, narrowing at each extremity ; at the handle is fixed a piece of 

 gum (wank), in which is inserted a sharp edged stone (tannela), which 

 is used to scrape the point of the spear when blunted by use. At the 

 outer end of the mecrois a small wooden peg (picota), which is insert- 

 ed into a hole at the end of the spear, and by which it is propelled. 

 The miero is also used at close quarters in their fights. 



The hammer (uguadu) is made with a lump of gum having two stones 

 imbedded in it, stuck on to the extremity of a short stick ; it is used in 

 climbing trees, in throwing at and killing animals, in breaking down 

 grass trees, and for the common purposes of axe and hammer. 



The knife (tapo), is a stick with sharp edged stones fixed in a bed of 

 gum, at the end and for two or three inches down the side, forming a 

 serrated instrument. The koilee, or boomering, is seldom used as a 

 weapon, but for skinning the kangaroo, and also for amusement ; some 

 are curiously carved. 



Their wigwams (boorno) are merely composed of a few small twigs 

 stuck in the ground, and bent over in the form of a bower, about four 

 feet high and five or six wide. They thatch them slightly with the 

 leaves of the grass tree ; in rainy weather they are roofed with pieces 

 of bark, upon which stones are placed to secure them from being blown 

 away ; but they afford a miserable protection from the weather. They 



