Volume 03 Item 03: Walter Edmund Roth Bulletin No. 13 Fighting Weapons, 1904-1906 - Page 16

                                                                                                 it         9
               straightening and bending etc as required, blacked  ^  all over
                in the fire                                   by the same [means?]
               ^ and finally hardened the point     [in the fire?].  This
letters      pilar was made from 9 to 10 feet long, and used for
                fighting at close quarters. Sometimes odd ones were
                                 very nearly through two
                  nicked about  ^  inches from the tip. for some fellow
                  they had a special 'down' on, so that when stuck
                  in, it would break off and remain behind. At
                   other occasions one or two Stingaree [Stingray?]  barbs might    
                    be stuck on with bees'wax and twine for a similar
                   purpose. 
                   (b) the Kannai was made from a young sapling 
                   of a certain scrub-wood, chosen to about the size
                   required, the bark just be scraped off, and then
                                                                              and
                    pointed. Used for fighting and hunting ^  Just
                    before a fight, bundles of these would be collected
                    from the scrubs. It was blacked all over in the
                                                                  and
                    fire, as in the case of the pilar  ^  hardened at the
 [do?]           point, the last 12 inches  [?]  or so of which was
                    finally scraped quite white; this was to enable
                    one to see it coming when thrown. Some times the
                     tip might be left blunted and [?], when three or four
                                                                                 would
  [do?]           prongs, each from 6 to 7 inches long  [might?]  be
                     attached to it, the weapon being then used for pur
                     poses of fishing.
                     (c) the rose-wood timber spears, not manufactured
                     here but bartered from the Ipswich Blacks, were 
                     also called pilar, and used [for?] similarly for
                      fighting at close quarters.
                                                                                          in
          8.        Spear throwers (wommeras) were absent  [on] the 
                      Eastern coastal districts extending from Townsville
                       to Rockhampton, and were unknown in Brisbane
                                     but 
                       (T.Petrie), ^  they were present in the area around
                        what is now Charters Towers. In their most primi
                                                               (Fig 24)
       / [tick]        tive form of a hooked stick  ^  they are met with
                        in  the Willesley [?] Island and neighbouring  mainland.