IJY H'KIT/ NOKTLINti, M.A., I'H.D. 73 



wlicthcr it was used as a. stabbing instrument, though it 

 seems to be well fitted for such a purpose. 



There may yet have been another use for the lughrana, 

 though there ai'e no accounts of it. It seems well fitted to 

 dig up roots and fungi ; in particular, fern roots and the 

 truffle-like Melitta australis. According to Brough Smitn 

 the West Australian Aborigines use a similar, though some- 

 wiiat longer, instrument, and it isi therefore not altogether 

 improbable that the lughrana was used for a similar pur- 

 pose. It may even be possible that the smooth-ended 

 lughrana was used for digging roots, while the rough-ended 

 was used as a missile. 



The lughrana can, therefore, not be considered as a 

 weapon, strictly speaking; there is not the slightest evidence 

 to show that it was used in inter-tribal fights or in war, bvit 

 there is at least one very empliatic statement that it was 

 solely used for hunting pui'poses. We must, therefore, ex- 

 clude the lughrana from the list of weapons, and we have 

 to consider it as a special implement, belonging to that class 

 of which the Australian boomei-ang is the tvpical represen- 

 tative. Tbe general idea that the Aborigines of Tasmania 

 did not know the use of the boomerang has to bo consider- 

 ably modified. Tliey did use a short stick, which was thrown 

 like a boomerang, and the only difference between it and 

 the lughrana is in the shape ; the character of the twO' im- 

 plements, viz., a wooden missile thrown with a rotatory 

 motion at a. distant object is exactly the same. 



This fact opens a wiac view, and it may, perhaps, ex- 

 plain the curio'us accounts that recur ever and ever again of 

 European tribes having used the boomerang. The boom- 

 erang seems to be such a peculiar instrument, which, accord- 

 ing to a general be'.ief, was so'elv restricted to th'^ Australian 

 Aborigines, that it was thought that any other race using 

 such an instrument must, of course, be related to the Aus- 

 tralians. But we can now give quite a different explana- 

 tion ; the boomerang is bv no means an instrument special 

 to Australia ; it is only the highly-specialised form of a 

 primitive implement that was common to all human tribes. 

 I have above pointed out that we are very fond of imagining 

 that primitive man picked up a convenient stick to defend 

 himself with, and it is generally assumed that this stick was. 

 used as a club in a hand to hand fight. If we, however, as- 

 sume that this stick was hurled with a rotatory motion like 

 the lughrana, at a distant object, we shall probably be nearer 

 the mark. 



