white, thus forming alternate stripes of bright-red and white. Why the shields are ridged and grooved has not been ascertained. As only one form of shield is known in West Australia, it must be inferred that it is used both as a guard against spears and clubs; and Mr. Barlee says that the natives consider it a sufficient protection for their bodies when in a half-kneeling or stooping position. It is rough-hewn with the stone-chisel, and carved and finished with the teeth of the opossum or kangaroo-rat.[1] The red color for ornamenting it is prepared from a yellow clay (Wilgee), which is burnt into red-ochre, and the white from a sort of pipeclay (Durda-ak).
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| FIG. 148. |
All the shields from West Australia are ornamented in the same manner, and the form, as far as I am able to ascertain, is the same everywhere on the west and north-west coast.
It is somewhat strange that we should find in Central Africa a shield very closely resembling that used by the natives of West Australia. The Neam-nam, in the Nile district, just under the Equator, have a weapon nearly of the same size and form as that of the West Australians, and, like it, the hole for the hand is scooped out of the solid block.[2] The Neam-nam shield is usually covered with the skin of an antelope, but it appears some are carved and colored. Mr. Alexander Williams, in Notes and Queries, says that the late Mr. Christy called his attention to the exact similarity of the shields of the West Australian blacks to those used by the natives of Central Africa—"a similarity not only in shape and pattern but actually in the succession of colors in the pattern."[3]
It is certainly remarkable that the shields of the natives of the west of Australia should differ so much in their character from those of the natives of the south and the east.
The Kadjo or Koj-jer—native hammer or tomahawk—(Fig. 149)—differs from all others known on the continent of Australia, and indeed an implement exactly similar has not been found, it is believed, in any part of the world. I have two specimens, and they are alike. One edge is chipped, so as to be of use in cutting and chopping, and the other is blunt, and may be employed as a hammer. The stone is a fine-grained granite—one is almost pure quartz—and the edge and the head are formed by percussion. They are not ground.
