Spears.
War Spears.
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| FIG. 68. |
The Mongile, a double-barbed spear (Fig. 68), is one with which cruel wounds are inflicted. If it strikes a black fairly, it will enter quite up to the lower barb, and it can be extracted only by cutting open the wound and drawing it through. The Rev. Mr. Bulmer informs me that the natives of Lake Tyers name this spear Wal.
A hard and tough wood is used for making spears of this kind. With a piece of quartz the native cuts a groove on each side of the upper end, and he inserts therein small chips of hard black basalt, or chips of some other suitable stone, and these chips are fastened and fixed in their places by Pid-jer-ong, a gum resembling pitch.[1]
A gum called Jark, obtained from the Acacia mollissima, is occasionally used for fastening the chips; but the blacks of the Goulburn had either a better gum or a better mode of preparing it than other blacks, because at one time they used to exchange their Pid-jer-ong for various articles with the members of neighbouring tribes.
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| FIG. 69. | FIG. 70. |
Another form of the Mongile is shown in Fig. 69. This is a double-barbed spear, made wholly of wood; and though difficult to fashion and to keep in good order, because of the barbs, which required care in cutting out, and were always liable to be broken, was much in favor at one time with the men of all tribes. The lower end is sharpened, and it is thrown with the hand alone, not with the Kur-ruk. There is a lighter spear, fitted on both sides with chips, and having a thicker piece of wood at the lower end, and made to be thrown with the Kur-ruk, which is used in hunting.
The woods used for making the Mongile were Dargoin, messmate (Eucalyptus fissilis), Wool-ip, tea-tree (Leptospermum lanigerum), and other hard and tough timber.
These spears vary in length from eight to eleven feet.
The spear Fig. 70 is, I believe, not common. It is pointed at the lower end, and cannot therefore be thrown with the Kur-ruk.
- ↑ Pid-jer-ong oozes from a tree called Mi-mee-rong by the natives of the Goulburn.
