Page:The Native Tribes of South Australia (1879).djvu/292

214 THE PORT LINCOLN TRIBE. slipping through the hand. The inside, on which the spear rests, is slightly hollowed out, while the outside is round, and both are rudely ornamented with little grooves. The midla is made of a long chip from the smooth and round trunk of a sheoak. The wirris, by the whites incorrectly called waddies, are also made of gum saplings; they are eighteen inches in length, and barely one inch in diameter, the thin end is notched in order to afford a firm hold for the hand, while towards the other end there is a slight gradual bend like that of a sword; they are, however, without knobs, and every way inferior to the wirris of the Adelaide tribes. The natives use this weapon principally for throwing at kangaroo rats or other small animals, and also at the commencemencement of a fight before they take to their spears. The kiatta or grubbing stick is a gum or sheoak sapling, five feet long and two inches in diameter; the thick end of it is hardened in the fire, and by means of a rough stone a broad and sharp edge is given to it. The use of this stick is sufficiently indicated by its name, namely, to dig up roots, and as this is mainly the employment of the women, it is their constant companion. The wadna is the boomerang of other Australian tribes, only that it is longer, thinner, and clumsier; it is used solely for striking fish in the water, and seldom carried about by the natives, but is generally left at the fishing places. The most singular implement in use with the Port Lincoln tribes—and peculiar to them, I believe, as I have not met with a notice of it anywhere else— is the yuta, a large piece of bark about four feet long, eight to ten inches wide, and presenting the form of an open round waterspout; its use is to clean the grubs of a large species of ant. When an ant-hill is opened it will be found to contain, among a mass of rubbish and innumerable small red insects, here and there a large white grub. These are the only ones fit for eating, but as it would be tedious to pick them out with the hand the natives put as much of the whole mass into the yuta as it will hold, and commence throwing it up and catching it again, holding the yuta all the time in a position slightly deviating from the horizontal. By this process all heavy substances