FL661437

a little combat between a male party of both
tribes, a few blows spark & a little blood
spilt may satisfy them. If a regular fight
determined on, they commence with a disdainful
challenge against each other, something like the disdainful
challenge of Goliath against David, getting
much excited & speaking most contempuously
of each other. More generally, some old women
rush first forwards, and issue against
each other a sort of Billingsgate language.
They then withdraw behind the scene and
the men let first fly their Boomerangs
whilst the spears soon follow. The Boome-
rang is thrown in such a way high in the
air, [words crossed out] as to [word crossed out] divert the atten-
tion, by looking upward to evade it's fall,
from the coming spear which comes straight
towards them. Their amunition is nearly
exhausted, except one party retreat for
the women stand behind the scene & pick
up the weapons of the enemy & hand them over
to their own party. Unless they are deter-
mined on a great revenge, they generally stop
when one or two or three are killed [word crossed out]
[words crossed out] or seriously wounded. When
all is over they usually sit down together
as the best friends, or assist each other
in bringing the dead, if there be any & perhaps
in the evening they hold a Corroboree together.