CHAPTER XXI
SPEARS
Spears used for four different purposes—Technically two divisions recognized—Descriptions of types.
Spears made by aboriginal Australians serve for four distinct purposes—for fighting, for hunting, for ceremonial, and for recreation, but it would never do to make these the basis of classification.
Technically, however, we recognize two main divisions, into which Australian spears can be made to fall, the one including all spears made out of a single piece of hard wood, the other those constructed of two or more pieces. With very few exceptions, the former are projected by the hand alone, the latter by means of a specially designed spear-thrower.
The simplest type of spear, found everywhere in Australia, consists merely of a long stick, more or less straightened artificially, and roughly pointed at one or both ends. Along the north coast of Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland alike, the spear is made of light mangrove wood; in central Australia it is of acacia; and in the south it is, or was, of mallee. Vide [Fig. 5], a.
Some of the tribes spend considerable time at straightening these spears. The method in vogue is to place the stick with its curved portion in hot ashes, and, after a while, to bend it over a stone until the right shape is obtained; a little emu fat is often applied to the spot before it is heated.
Fig. 5. Types of spears.
Others devote much attention to the shaping of the spear by scraping and rasping its surface. Exceptionally straight and smoothed mulga spears were made by the Barcoo natives of the Durham Downs district and by the Dieri (b), whilst on the north coast, the Crocker Islanders’ spears are deserving of the same comments; the latter, in addition, are decorated by a few delicate engravings in the form of circumferential rings and wavy longitudinal bands composed of short parallel transverse lines. The Arunndta groove the spears lengthwise with a stone adze.
An improvement on this type is rendered by the cutting of a pointed blade at one end of the spear (c). Some of the best specimens come from the eastern Arunndta in the Arltunga district. The blade is symmetrically cut, sharply edged, and smooth; the remaining portion of the spear is grooved longitudinally throughout its length.