they are ornamented. Many are heavy, weighing as much as fifty-six ounces; and the wives of the natives must have been sorely burdened in travelling from camp to camp when their warriors owned several of these weapons.
The aperture for the hand in all the specimens in my collection varies in length from three to three and a half inches, and when covered with the skin of the opossum the space is not more than sufficient to allow of a lady grasping the handle of the shield. The natives have long narrow hands, and all who examine their weapons and implements are astonished when they see the small spaces that are cut out for the hand. Some of the club-shields are very elegant in form, and are superior, I think, to the African shields, which in many respects they resemble.
The Gee-am, or Ker-reem, a thin, light, and broad canoe-shaped shield, is used as a defence against spears, and would be nearly useless in protecting a man against an enemy armed with a club. The specimens figured in this work fairly represent the character of these weapons. Care has been taken to give drawings of old weapons only—weapons made before the natives had become accustomed to use the knives and tools introduced by the whites.
The Ker-reem reminds one of the wicker shield (Gerrhum) of the Persians, the Gerrha of the Assyrians, and the γέρρον of the ancient Greeks—the square shield made of osier and covered with the hide of an ox.[1] The weight of the Ker-reem is usually not more than twenty-seven ounces. These shields are hard and strong and durable.
In some the place for the hand is cut out of the solid wood; but generally two holes are made, and a piece of the bough of a tree is bent, and the ends are inserted in the holes. Those with solid handles are old weapons, and are now very rare.
The Goolmarry of the natives of Mackay in Queensland, and the very remarkable shield with a boss, and ornamented with zigzag lines, from Rockingham Bay, are different altogether in form, and in some respects in ornamentation, from the shields used by the natives of the Namoi and the Peel, where weapons like those of the Murray and the Glenelg are common. I have in my collection a beautiful spear-shield from the Namoi, having a handle cut out of the solid wood, which in form and in ornamentation is exactly like the shields used by the natives of the Yarra.
The woods available for making shields are in the south very different from those of the north. A species of ficus which grows in the north yields a soft and light wood, which is admirably suited to the requirements of the native; and with this he has constructed a weapon which differs essentially from the heavy wooden club-shield and the lighter spear-shield of the men of the Murray and the Yarra.
The weapons and implements of the West Australian natives differ in some respects from those of the natives of the eastern and southern parts of the continent.
- ↑ A wicker shield, usually covered with tappa, is found in use among some of the natives of the islands of the Solomou Group.
