PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 513 
each individual, with raised arms, resting his hands on the 
shoulders of the one in front; another of the playmates, 
standing by himself at some distance ahead, and facing the 
foremost of the file, throws the boomerang over their heads, 
and as it circles round they all follow it in its gyrations, the 
game being for any of them to escape being hit, each taking 
it in turn to throw the missile. Among the Yaro-inga tribe 
on the Upper Georgina, the blacks often try and arrange 
to make up two sides, the idea being for a member of the 
one team to hit an individual of the other. 
If the toy-boomerang be thrown direct on to the ground, 
and slightly to the right or left (never exactly straight 
ahead), the course of flight is represented in Pl. XXXII, 18, 
where B indicates the spot struck. R represents that of a 
right-handed and L that of a left-handed instrument, A 
having a similar signification as before. 
The “Cross” is made of two pointed laths, from about 8 
to 10 or more inches long, drilled at their centres and fixed 
cross-wise in position with split lawyer-cane (Pl. XXXIL., 
19). It is met with in the coastal districts extending from 
Cardwell to the Mossman, and to the Mallanpara blacks of 
the Tully is known as pirbu-pirbu. Like the toy-boomerang, 
it is used by men and boys only, and thrown according to 
two methods. In the first. thrown direct into the air, the 
course of flight is similar to the boomerang, but there is 
more of the circle than the oval, and a dowbdle circle round 
the player at its termination. If thrown on to the ground, 
it is made to strike a spot directly in front of the performer 
(Pl. XXXII., 20, B), whence it curves to the right or to the 
left, as the case may be. 
The above toy is imitated by some of the smaller children 
by means of thick swamp-grass, &c. The two strips are 
either pierced and tied, as in the case of the wooden ones, or 
else plaited together as shown in Pl. XXXII., 21. It is 
thrown with a twist of the wrist up into the air, whence it 
soon returns in a right or left sniral. 
Pit-throwiny 18 a game played by the Kalkadun. Any 
fairly-sized bone, often a human shin, is slung by means of 
an attached twine over an emu net into a pit or hole exca- 
vated on its further side. Considering the great distance 
often intervening between the thrower and the excavation, 
great skill is apparently necessary in making the bone fall 
into the hole without touching the net. 
Music (Hxultative Games—Songs).—Notwithstanding the 
important réle which song plays in the life-history of the 
aboriginal, any inquiry into its origm and aims is at the 
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