Primary tabs
Transcription
25
32. Single-handed swords are met with in the Cardwell, and Bloomfield Districts. On the Lower Tully River, this weapon, the garkur (Fig 63) is made from the Myrtus exaltata, Bail. (MAL. yamgi) and from another tree which I have not been able to identify. Such a tree of about six inches in diameter is cut off at the butt and felled, the length required removed, and then split down the centre (Fig. 61). A slab can then be taken from either half (Fig. 62) and chipped to shape. The shape of weapon thus follows the shape of the tree, straight or bent: the straighter it is, the more preferable it would appear to be. To make the handle, a cut is made either side of the slab which is then split; fibre-twine is finally wound round the handle and covered with beeswax. One edge is as a rule sharper than the other, but both edges can be used for cutting; if the weapon has a distinct bend or curve, it is the convex edge which is apparently only used, but if straight, both are used and the whole may be uniformly raddled. The proximal or handle-end amongst these Mallanpara Blacks is known as mua and the distal extremity ngorn, a term signifying the forehead. It is from 41/2 to 5 ft in length, and always used with the one hand stretched over the shoulder, the weapon hanging behind the back, and brought forward from above down with a more or less sudden jerk; well directed, a blow from it can split a man's skull. This weapon used to be manufactured on the Bloomfield River, but now (1898) only occasionally by the old men. The Koo-yellanji natives here call it worran.