646 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 
a third variety, flat but curved. A sword-club is sometimes (if not 
always) taken into a tribal combat. At the Adelaide River it was 
borne, grasped in both hands, by a woman of great age, terrible in the 
energy which fired her. IN’ o blows were struck with it, but it seemed 
to be used to direct and to animate the warriors. It is of very heavy 
■wood, and is fish-shaped. The one I possess measures 4J feet in length, 
14 inches in breadth at the narrowest part to 3 inches across at 7 inches 
from the point to which it then curves. The bumerang is not found 
among them, and they are unable to make it, but they have heard of 
it from Queensland natives who have come over with white men ; nor 
have they shields. The flat piece of wood, 64 inches in length and 
14 inches in breadth, which attached to a piece of string and whirled 
round the head produces a whizzing noise, has its place in their 
ceremonies. Stone tomahaw ks and cutting instruments have gone out 
of use since the intercourse with the whites. 
Belts of bark and of hair, and occasionally little fringe aprons a 
few' inches in length and width, are worn by the men. The hair is 
often confined by a band or a fillet, and the Wulwongga lads have at 
times a head-dress of kangaroo teeth embedded in gum, through which 
they are strung together. The young women and girls are fond of 
necklaces composed of bits of dry grass threaded on string, and the 
AVAlnar girls often wear an arrangement of twisted cord coloured with 
red ochre, relieved by bands of pipeclay, crossing over and under the 
breasts, passing under the arms, and reunited at the back. All wear 
neatly plaited armlets of grass. A nosepin is said to keep out the 
dust and to be a protection when a fever- wind is blowing. Billy bags, 
plaited reed baskets, and the kulamin are used, but the latter has 
been nearly superseded by the billycan. The string is made from 
fibre by rubbing it with the hand upon the thigh. 
The Larrakfia made canoes of good size hollowed out from a tree, 
and one was worked round from Southport to Port Darwin. Eire is 
kindled by a stick twirled rapidly between the hands, the point being 
inserted in a notch in another stick held firmly by the feet. 
Smoke and Hand Signalling . — At the Adelaide meeting of the 
Association in 1S93 a paper of much interest was read by Mr. A. T. 
Magarey upon “Smoke Signals,” which provoked considerable corres- 
pondence in the public Press ; and two facts will be of interest. In 
1SS4 Messrs. H. Househildt, J. Noltenius, J. Landers, and T. Schol- 
lert w r ere murdered by blacks on the Daly River. Although I was not 
in the country at the time, I learnt from both whites and Larrakika 
that the latter knew from smoke signals of those murders before the 
former had any information, although all speed w'as made by the 
horseman conveying the news to Port Darwin. 
The other instance transpired in 1S90. My boy was sitting on 
the doorstep, and apparently apropos of nothing (for a boat was not 
expected, it being supposed that the ** Guthrie” had gone past without 
calling) remarked, “ Steamer, him come on ; him sit down lame 
fellow,” getting up and limping across the room to my table. Eour 
days afterwards the “ Guthrie” came in with a broken shaft, and I 
then questioned him whether lie had been able to see her. He told 
me, No ! that the boat was too far away, but “ blackfellow him make 
’em smoke, blackfellow' been tell ’em” ; and he proceeded to show me 
