202 RKCoRDS OF TUB AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



in the same manner, represented in PI. lix. , fig. 1, with a cut above 

 and below, and one behind. This last cut is made about three 

 inches from the free edge, the split travelling simultaneously up 

 and down, and used to be done with a stone tomahawk ; even 

 withoul this split a smart blow will remove the piece required. 

 The timber so removed is then cut into shape by splitting, then 

 chipped, then scraped with flint, then with shell, and finally 

 rubbed over with the pumice stone which is obtained both in the 

 Tullv River and at its mouth. The fighting boomerang is 

 clumsier made and heavier than the toy one, and is always used 

 for offensive purposes by making it strike the ground Hist. 

 Originally it used to be ornamented with a uniform coating of 

 red pigment. Its parts are only mimed as the mollo or handle, 

 and its opposite extremity as the chinna or foot. 



17. Around Mack ay, the natives will descrihe the local 

 boomerang as having two knees, i.e., a more or less defined 

 double bend, which results in giving the weapon a very typical 

 appearance (PI. lix., fig. 2). 



18. In the R'ockhainpton and surrounding coast-district, 

 except its southern portions, e.g., Gladstone and .Miriam 

 Vale, the boomerang (PI. lix., fag. 3; has a very marked 

 bend or knee close to its proximal (handle) extremity, 

 the upper convex surface showing a fine stone-chisel 

 fluting; its extremities are tapering, while the width of the 

 shaft gradually increases from the handle onwards, until it 

 reaches its maximum of about two and half inches at a spot 

 situated at about thi-ee-quarters of its length. Lumholtz figures 88 

 one similar to this from Coomooboolaroo, Central Queensland. 

 A straight line joining its two extremities measures about 

 twenty-six and a half inches, this increasing slightly as one 

 travels northwards from Rockhampton. It is made of brigalow, 

 rosewood or wattle. At Marlborough (1.S97) a local aboriginal 

 told me that in the olden times boomerangs used to be orna- 

 mented on their convex surface with large diamonds ('graved) 

 placed end on end, each diamond being subdivided by parallel 

 lines into four smaller ones. On the Keppel Islands I could 

 learn nothing about boomerangs, whereas at Miriam Vale the 

 only two specimens obtainable were bidaterally symmetrical, i.e., 

 with the knee at the middle, its widest portion, and were said to 

 be return or toy boomerangs. 



93 Lumholtz —Among Cannibals, 1890, p. 334, 2 figs. I do not think 

 that Lumholt/.'s figure represents the same weapon as above, described l>y 

 Dr. Roth. — (Ed.). 



