Gudang

"The natives at Cape York call themselves Gudaŋ. Westward of that tribe are the Kokiliga; south-west of the Gudaŋ are the Ondaima; and due south, are the Yaldaigan, who have almost exterminated the Gudaŋ."

"No other property than that mentioned was to be seen about the camp of the Gudangs, but on our asking for them. Longway produced some small spears and a throwing stick, which were hidden in the bush close by; and a second lot of spears was produced afterwards from a similar hiding-place. The Blacks keep what property they have thus hidden away, just as a dog hides his bone, and not in the camp ; hence it is impossible to find out what they really have. I saw no knife or tomahawk. No doubt the practice of thus hiding things away from the camp has arisen from constant fear of surprise from hostile tribes.The Blacks feed on shell fish and on snails (a very large Helix), and on snakes and grubs and such things, which are nunted for by the women, who go out into the woods in a gang every day for the purpose of collecting food, and also dig wild yam roots with a pointed stick hardened in the fire. They have not got the perforated stone to weight their digging-stick, and are thus behind the Bushmen of the Cape in this matter. A staple article of food with these Blacks is afforded by the large seeds of a Climbing Bean (Entada scandens), and their only stone implements are a round flat-topped stone and another long conical one, suitable to be grasped in the hands. This is used as a pestle with which to pound these beans on the fiat stone. Both stones are merely selected, and not shaped in any way.These Blacks seem never to have had any stone tomahawks, and their spear-heads are of bone. They seem not to hunt the Wallabies or climb after the Opossums, as do the more southern Blacks, but to live almost entirely on creeping things and roots, and on fish, which they spear with four-pronged spears. Staff-Surgeon Crosbie of the “Challenger” saw Longway and his boy smashing up logs of drift-wood and pulling out Teredos and eating them one by one as they reached them."

"Cape York is a sort of emporium of savage weapons and ornaments. Pearl shell-gathering vessels (“Pearl-shellers” as they are called) come to Somerset with crews which they have picked up at all the islands in the neighbourhood, from New Guinea, and from all over the Pacific, and they bring weapons and ornaments from all these places with them. Moreover, the Murray Islanders visit the port in their canoes, and bring bows and arrows, drums, and such things for barter.The water police stationed at Somerset deal in these curiosities, buying them up and selling them to passengers in the passing steamers, or to other visitors. Hence all kinds of savage weapons have found their way into English collections, with the label “ Cape York,” and the Northern Australians have got credit for having learnt the use of the bow-and-arrow. I believe that no Australian natives use the bow at all.Weapons from very remote places, find their way to Cape York, and thus no doubt the first specimens of Admiralty Island javelins reached English museums. Accurate determination of locality is of course essential to the interest of savage weapons. Staff-Surgeon Maclean, of the “ Challenger,” had a large New Guinea drum of the Crocodile form thrust upon his acceptance, as a fee for visiting a patient on board one of the “Pearl-shellers”; he gave it to me."