NORTH QUEENSLAND ETHNOGRAPHY — ROTH. 201 



At the proximal end is placed a tassel of human hair " ringlets," 

 each ringlet a two-ply twist (PI. lxi., fig. 1) ; it is prevented from 

 slipping off by a washer of gum-cement around the stick (PI. lxi., 

 fig. 2), hut hidden hy the tassel. The distal peg is of wood, 

 held in position by string lashing, gum-cement covered. 



The second implement 31 is narrow, rigid, and lath-like, about 

 three quarters of an inch in thickness, plano-convex or slightly 

 bi-convex, and two feet ten inches in length by one and three- 

 quarters wide. The proximal end is cut out for the reception of 

 the hand of the spearsman, but affording a very small grasp 

 (PI. lxi., tig. 3). The wooden peg at the distal end is large and 

 obtuse (PI. lxi., fig. -4), and held in position by a gum-cement 

 coating, and doubtless lashed on beneath. The whole of both 

 surfaces is highly raddled and decorated with broad pipeclay 

 transverse hands at both ends, the whole intermediate surface 

 being pipeclay cross-hatched.] 



15. Boomerangs are either manufactured from the flange of a 

 tree (a natural form) or else cut en bloc. North of the Palmer 

 River, they may be said to be absent in the Peninsula. Employed 

 for both fighting and hunting purposes. 



16. The generic name for a boomerang on the Lower Tully 

 River is wa-ngal. This can be either a eharal-jego (charal == to 

 bounce on the ground), a fighting one, i.e., one which, on striking 

 the ground, flies low; or a nyaral (= to buzz, hum), a toy one, i.e., 

 one that flies high. The quality of either cannot be gauged 

 except by experience 1 -. Fortunately or unfortunately, the 

 natives have learnt that if, during a fight, a good fighting-one 

 gets broken, they can utilize a toy one by throwing it wrong end- 

 on on to the ground, when it will rise but little. With either 

 kind, a left-handed one {i.e., one which, when thrown, will 

 swerve to the left) is spoken of as chaku-i, and a right-handed 

 one as yural-bara, similar terms as the particular attributes in a 

 man. 



The boomerang is manufactured from the following timbers, 

 only one of which have so far been identified : — the yarran 

 (Rhodomyrtiis macrocarpa, Benth.), yandan, bokobai, charkala, 

 puchera, yalma. In all cases, as well as around Cardwell, it is 

 made from the flange on the butt of the tree, and hence is an 

 example of a natural form. Furthermore, it is always got-out 



31 "Biletta"— See Etheridge— Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, (2), vii. . 

 1893, pi. xi.; Luschan — Bastian-Festschrift, 1896, pi. x., fig. 6; Spencer 

 and Gdlen, loe. cit , p. 669, figs. '222-3— (Ed.). 



s 2 Both— Bull. 4— Sect. 22. 



