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[Page 14]
one they generaly carried here was called "coutra"
they were about three feet long, made of white myrtle,
generaly about one inch diameter at the handle _ swelling
out graduly to, say 1 ½ or two inches, then tapering off to a
point = at the end of the handle part, it was bound round
with string, and covered over with Grasstree gum so as to
form a knob & preventing it from sliping out of the hand - there
was always three or four groves longitudely down the swelling
part of the "coutra" but they had other shapes - one a
beastly thing = like a mushroom, with a long stalk - sharp
at the edges, and another the end was pear shaped
the thick end two or three inches through, a regular club\
Fancy what hard heads they must have had, when a
fellow would hit another as hard as he could while he
held his head for him to strike at - that was their way
of fighting - turn & turn about, from what I could make
out, when one got knocked down that ended it = tother
fellow was best man, I saw Paddy with an awful gash
on his head one day but Paddy was proud "that fellow
could not knock me over", The spears were made of the
stem of the small kind of Grasstree flowers that grows on the
sandy places near the coast when they could get it - if
not they used the long thin stems of what we call [Brown?]
Kuragung but that was not nearly so good as the Grasstree
this was pointed with hard Iron bark about 18 inches
long and the point hardened in the fire, this was
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