Primary tabs
Transcription
7
knives, shell scrapers and pointed sticks, imagine the infinite patience required to cut most of their living out of hardwood trees and logs, to strip bark for their shelters and to shape and fashion their weapons of war and for the chase.
Indeed the manufacture of a stone tomahawk itself, from the grinding to a sharp edge to the fixing of ana adequate handle, must have been a task needing no end of patience and perseverance. So, ever since the steel age reached the blacks, often noted the patience with which they scraped their spears (using broken glass) to a long fine point, trimmed their boomerangs to an exact weight and balance or carried out any task weeding special skill and attention. I never saw a barbed spear amongst the tribes of the upper Richmond or Clarence but it is possible those of the sea coast way have used barbs for spearing fish. Nor did the tribes I knew use the womerah, or spear throwing stick though according to Robert Dawson's book on Australia (published 1831) it was in use at Port Stephens when he took up the A.A. Company's Grant in 1826. Have also been told, on reliable authority, that it was used by the Macleay river natives and it is strange that it occurs in some districts and misses out in others. All the weapons used by the blacks I write of were dried and hardened by being passed through flames and smoke. In domestic arts the principal