(spellings various)
aboriginal name. A battle club of the aborigines in Australia.
1839. T. L. Mitchell, `Three Expeditions into the Interior ofEastern Australia,' vol. i. p. 71:
«He then threw a club, or nulla-nulla, to the footof the tree.»
1853. C. Harpur, `Creek of the Four Graves':
«Under the crushing stroke
Of huge clubbed nulla-nullas.»
1873. J. B. Stephens, `Black Gin,' p. 61:
«Lay aside thy nullah-nullahs
Is there war betwixt us two?»
1885. R. M. Praed, `Australian Life,' p. 9:
«The blacks . . . battered in his skull with a nulla-nulla.»
1888. D. Macdonald, `Gum Boughs,' p. 11:
«They would find fit weapons for ghastly warriors in the longwhite shank-bones gleaming through the grass – – appropriategnulla-gnullas and boomerangs.»
1889. P. Beveridge, `Aborigines of Victoria and Riverina,'p. 67:
«The nulla-nulla is another bludgeon which bears a distinctivecharacter . . . merely a round piece of wood, three feet longand two and a half inches thick, brought to a blunt point atthe end. The mallee is the wood from which it is generallymade.»
1890. C. Lumholtz, `Among Cannibals,' p. 72:
«I frequently saw another weapon, the `nolla-nolla' or club,the warlike weapon of the Australian native most commonly inuse. It is a piece of hard and heavy wood sharpened to a pointat both ends. One end is thick and tapers gradually to theother end, which is made rough in order to give the hand a moresecure hold; in using he weapon the heavy end is thrown backbefore it is hurled.»
1892. J. Fraser, `Aborigines of New South Wales,' p. 73:
«One of the simplest of Australian clubs, the `nulla-nulla'resembles the root of a grass-tree in the shape of its head. . . in shape something like a child's wicker-rattle.»