The meat-cutter or native knife is usually figured and described as a saw; and it much resembles a saw. Fragments of quartz are fastened to a piece of hard wood with the gum of the xanthorrhœa, very much in the same way as in making a spear, and a rough sort of knife is the result. It is used for cutting flesh.
These weapons and tools, and the native scoop or spade (Waal-bee), the waddy, the large war-club, and such implements as bone-needles or awls, complete the list of the instruments commonly in use on the west coast.
Nearly all the information respecting the West Australian weapons and implements has been communicated by the Honorable F. Barlee, M.P., the Colonial Secretary of West Australia, and by Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, who made a geological survey of a portion of the territory. Mr. Brown increased my collection by a valuable donation of spears, throwing-sticks, tomahawks, &c., and but for his assistance I should have been unable to give a description of many very interesting weapons.
Much ingenuity is displayed by the natives in plaiting and weaving grasses, flags, and sedges, and various vegetable fibres, into twine, bags, and nets. The leaves of the reed (Phragmites communis), a sedge-like plant (Xerotes longifolia), different species of Carex, and the common grass (Poa Australis), are plaited by the women. The leaves are usually split with the nail, a number of the strips are put together, without being twisted, and another strip is wrapped round the bundle thus formed. The strips are neatly interlaced; and sometimes a pattern is formed by varying the size of the strips or by using leaves of different colors.
Many of the bags are made of a fibre obtained from the bark of the stringy-bark tree (Eucalyptus obliqua). The fibre is twisted, and the twine is very strong and durable. The fur of the opossum or the native cat is sometimes used for making twine. None of the baskets made in Victoria are so closely woven as to hold water, and it is doubtful whether there are any such in Australia. The wicker bottle or basket from Rockingham Bay, figured and described by Mr. John McDonnell, may perhaps hold water. Indeed it is more like a water vessel than anything else.
It is a very amusing sight to see a group of native women employed in basket-making. Each has a heavy stone to keep the work in its place, and the plaiting is done by the hands, the band being looped over the large toe of the right foot. They chatter and sing continually as the business goes on, and they seem to enjoy the labor, and to pursue it as mechanically as an old woman knitting a stocking.
When the whites came the native women made variously-colored twine from the old shawls and other garments that were given to them, and with this they netted bags, both for their own use and for sale. Some of these are very pretty.
The vessels used for holding water are usually of wood. A gnarl of a gum-tree is cut off, and hollowed by fire and with the chisel or tomahawk. Some are large and heavy, and must have remained at the camp where they were made. Others are small, and could be carried with ease.
