Volume 03 Item 03: Walter Edmund Roth Bulletin No. 13 Fighting Weapons, 1904-1906 - Page 33

                                                                                             17B

22.  On the Lower Tully R[iver] the shield or pi-kan is made from the Ficus chretioides, F.v.M. (MAL. magura) and from another timber, not identified by but known to the local Mallanpara blacks as Keba. It is [manu ?] cut from the tree on similar lines as the boomerang. A curved incision is made on in the flange both above and below, and the spur next chipped about half-way through on either side along the lines required (Fig. 20) and the piece then hammered or pushed out. Such shields are therefore not exactly oval, their shape on one side edge depending upon the greater or less concavity of the flange. After this piece has been removed it is chipped away on both surfaces except at the centres which remain; in section, this stage of its manufacture would be represented in the diagram (Fig. 31). To the central boss on the front of the shield nothing more is done for the present though it may subsequently be shaved down a little: into the projection at its future back, however, two longitudinal holes are chipped, those being united below by hot cinders etc and together constitutinge a handle at the end of the process. The weapon is then lightened by means already detailed*, then rubbed down with pumice stone, etc, and finally painted. In the designs of the patterns so depicted (Figs. 32, 33, 36) there is no meaning or interpretation, and on this subject very careful enquiries have been made both by myself and on my behalf throughout the district: there may be some three or four typical styles etc but, as a rule, one man copies another's, the copy being either a travesty or an improvement, according to the light in which it is regarded. The front of the shield is called Kananja, a word signifying 'the inside' in reference to its outside (outer back) having been removed in course of manufacture. The central projection is the namma, the back of the shield the chu-cha (= person's back [dore?] while dumbul (a term signifying the female genitalia) is applied to the handle portion.xx