WEAPONS. 
30& 
pointed and shaped very much like a miner’s pick, the 
longer or handle-end being rounded and carved, 
to give a firmer grasp ; another dreadful weapon, 
intended for close combat, is made out of hard wood, 
from two to three feet long, straight and with the 
handle rounded and carved for the grasp* which has 
an immense pointed knob at the end ; the bwirri, 
is also a weapon of hard wood about two feet long, 
rather slight and merely smoothed in the handle,, 
with a round knob at the extremity* it is principally 
thrown, and with very great precision ; but is more 
generally used after game than in warfare. 
The shield (tar-ram) is made out of the bark or 
wood of the gum-tree, and varies in shape and 
device* the ordinary shield is about two or two and 
a half feet long, from eight to eighteen inches across* 
and tapering from the middle towards the extremi- 
ties* two holes are made near the centre, through 
which a piece of wood is bent for a handle ; 
shields are always carved and painted in time of 
war. 
The implements made use of by the natives are 
not very numerous, and their general characteristics 
are nearly the same all over the continent. The 
native hatchet is made of a very hard greenish-look- 
ing stone, rubbed to an edge on either side; it is 
fixed in the cleft of a stick* or a branch is doubled 
round it, and either tied or gummed to prevent its 
slipping. The throwing sticks have generally a 
sharp piece of quartz or flint gummed on at the lower 
