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[Page 14] 14
- The Tomahawk -
The tempered iron tomahawk was of course
an immense improvement over the stone
one - which by the way I never saw amongst
them - The tomahawks of the days
I am writing about were narrow and longer
than the american sort which came later and
for which the blacks had no time - With
the narrow bladed sort they could cut out
a possum from a hollow tree or a bandicoot or
kangaroo rat from a log far more easily with a narrow
than with a broad bladed one -
The first thing a black fellow did when he
received a tomahawk was to substitute for
the white man's handle one of his own make
shaped as per margin flat and coming down
to a point - This was placed loosely into the
eye of the tomahawk and then fastened
firmly by a wedge driven in on the side -
The reason for this was that this kind of
handle not only lent more weight to the head
but could be pushed under the men's possum
hair waist belt, leaving his hands free when
climbing trees, and at the same time keeping
the implement secure and handy when wanted -
(Symbol drawn of three-sided pointed shape in left margin)