Blacks of the Manning River District, New South Wales, 1851-1912 - Page 16

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was usualy kept on top, The fish - if not too large, got

jamed in between the points = The ordinary spears were

called "gumm`i" the fishing spears "MÅ«tti", It was very pretty

to be on the River in a boat about Goat Island (native name

was "Goolan Goolangithe" having plenty of Bats = "Goolet" a Bat)

which was a good fishing place, you would see three

or four canoes on the River with a Black  & his Gin

in them, a small fire in the middle, the Darkey at

one end standing up with his spear ready = the Gin

siting at the other end, the man would paddle with the

spear a bit - then make a drive with his spear and bring

up a big mulet  & toß  it into the canoe to the Gin = It looked

very pretty of an evening, the River like Glaß  & the beautiful

green of the trees on the banks = they were not cut down then,

and the Darkeys in their canoes made a very pretty picture

I often think of these old times how beautiful the River was

then = They had another nasty looking fighting implement

but I fancy it was only carried for show, - I never heard

of any one being hit with one = it was shaped something

like a Boomerang, about as thick=say   ½ in, sharp at

the edges, about four inches wide _ the Boomerang shaped

edge was sharp like the other which was square _ not

a curve = like this [hand drawn illustration] They were not common = The shield

in the locality was made always of an oval shape, made out

of a peice of Figtree split off one of the butreßes  of a good big

tree - always pipeclayed with two lines of red from top to

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