2*28 SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



A good specimen may be 33 inches from tip to tip measured along the 

 curve, 2 inches wide, and weigh 12 ounces. There are several ways of 

 throwing 1 lie boomerang so as to make it execute its peculiar evolutions. 

 In throwing it, the native grasps it by the handle end, which has some 

 notches upon it, and holds the flat side downward; then balancing it a 

 moment in his hand, and making a few quick steps forward, he launches 

 it with a sharp fling, bringing his hand back so as to make it revolve in 

 the plane of its curve with groat rapidity. The peculiarity of the boom- 

 erang is in what may be considered its erratic flight. Thrown so as to 

 strike the ground 40 yards in advance of the thrower, it rebounds, de- 

 scribes a high circular backward course, and falls behind the thrower. 

 Thrown high in the air it mounts to a great height, circles backward 

 until its force is expended, and then drops dead at a point behind the 

 thrower. It is also thrown, so as at a given distance to make its rebound 

 in other than an upward circular direction, and curve its flight around 

 an object so as to strike something behind the latter. This is merely 

 an effort of skill. The boomerang is thrown against the wind; and, 

 though it is easy enough to hurl it, it is very difficult to make it per- 

 form at command all the peculiar evolutions which distinguish it. It 

 is roughly made, so far as mere finish is concerned ; but the work upon 

 it in adjusting the curves is most scrupulously and patiently performed 

 by the natives, some of whom never acquire proficiency, while others 

 become celebrated for their skill in the manufacture of the weapon. 

 Like all instruments which have attained something like perfection, the 

 difference between the best and poorest is greater than in the case of 

 some other tools where a more general level of excellence is preserved. 



The subject of the boomerang has been learnedly and carefully consid- 

 ered in R. Brough Smith's "Aborigines of Victoria." 37 The discussion 

 has elicited the fact that some throwing-sticks move with a spinning or 

 whirling motion, and even pursue a curved path, as a billiard or base- 

 ball player can curve the trajectory by imparting rotation to the ball. 

 None of the implements, however, described by Col. Lane Fox (British 

 Association, 1*72), or referred to in Mr. Ferguson's learned paper before 

 the Royal Irish Academy in 1838, are fairly comparable to the Austra- 

 lian weapon. It must also be remarked that the distinction between 

 the play weapon and the war weapon is clearly drawn in the mind of 

 the native, though the back-return boomerang cannot always be distin- 

 guished from the war boomerang by a novice. The barnyeet of the 

 Yarra, 33 lor instance, is a war weapon, and not a come-back; nor is it so 

 much curved as the regular boomerang, wonguim.™ A group of the vari- 

 ous kinds is shown in Mr. Smith's work', previously referred to. 40 



From the straight round stick, knobbed stick, flat stick, curved stick, 

 edged curved stick (a wooden sword), through every degree of curva- 

 ture up to the perfect boomerang, the series of Australian hurling 

 weapons occupies the whole ground. The most curiously-curved weapon, 



37 Vol. i, p. 321, et seq. ™Ibid., Fig. 96. 39 Ibid., Fig. 95. *°Ibid., i, 315, Fig. 99. 



