THE BOOMERANG. 



445 



seems to have been used by almost all the Australian tribes. 



It was, however, according to Flinders,* unknown at King 

 FIG. 208. George's Sound. The very long Aus- 



tralian spears are not thrown with the 

 wummera, but by the strength of the 

 arm alone. They are of several kinds : 

 those used for striking turtle or dugong 



o o o 



have a movable, barbed blade, which is 

 attached by a string to the butt-end of 

 the spear ; when the turtle is struck, the 

 shaft becomes detached from the point, 

 which remains fixed in the body, while 

 the shaft serves partly to impede the 

 motions, and partly as a float to indi- 

 cate the position of the turtle."-)- A 

 similar weapon is used by the Esqui- 

 maux, the Mincopies, the Fuegians, the 

 Brazilian Indians, and other savages. 

 But the most extraordinary weapon, and 

 one quite peculiar to Australia, is the 

 boomerang. This is a curved stick, 

 generally rounded on one side, flatter 

 on the other, about three feet long and 

 two inches wide, by three-quarters of an 

 inch thick. At first sight it looks some- 

 thing like a very rude wooden sword. It 

 is used both in the chase and in war. " It is grasped at one end 

 in the right hand, and is thrown sickle-wise, either upwards into 

 the air, or downwards so as to strike the ground at some dis- 

 tance from the thrower. In the first case it flies with a rotatory 

 motion, as its shape would indicate ; after ascending to a great 



* Voy. to Terra Australis, vol. ii. t Hawkesworth's Voyages, vol. 

 p. 66. iii. p. 636. See also Eyre, vol. ii. 



p. 305 ; McGillivray, vol. i. p. 147. 



Boomerang. 



