WEAPONS, 
205 
pied, only two aboriginal females were seen, and at a 
• distance ; they were both old and ugly, and their only 
garment was a abort narrow apron of plaited gmss. We 
frequently &aw young boySj from six to twelve years of 
agGj along with the men ; they were well made, pltimp in 
person J good-looking, and with a remarkable expression 
of sharpness in their eyes. 
" The weapons used are spears and wad dies ; the spears 
are from ten to twelve feet long, made of a heavy wood, 
and very sharp-pointed ; some are plain, others barbed ; 
some have a single row of barbs, from twelve to fifteen in 
number, and others a double row ; tbey may weigh three 
pounds, and are thrown from the hand (without any arti- 
ficial lever, as at Port Jackson), with great precision and 
force, to a distance of fifty or sixty yards * 
" The waddiea are used as weapons of attack, as well as 
for killing wild animals and birds. They are made of 
heavy wood^ twenty-two inches long, one and a half in 
diameter, pointed shai-p at one end^ and weighing above 
• Tlie war-spears of the Melville islanders are sharp at both ends, 
tapering off from uear tlie oeutre of the length, and are poised wlicn 
about to be thrown, as is practised l)y Ibe Caffres with their 
" asseghais." The spears ia ordinary use among the Port Essing:ton 
tribes are of reed, or bamboo, and blunt at one end, which is also 
hollowed out into a sort of socket to receive the hook at the end of 
the rog&rouky or wmdouk^ varieties of the throwing-stick, with which 
they are projected ; but the Melville Island spear, which is called 
is not unknown to tiicni, as the chief warriors always have two or 
three very beautifully shaped out of hard wood, which seem only to 
be used in cases of duels between warriors. They acknowledge that 
this fashion of spear ia borrowed from the Melville islanders, — 
G. W. E. 
