A GLANCE AT THE ABORIGINES. 173 



Altogether it was a ghastly, horrible scene that the pale moon looked down 

 on that night at Thule.' 



Mr. Carr describes the agility displayed by the men in such feats as 

 mounting the trees for opossums, &c, and the illustration on page 12 tells 

 the story of one of these hunts. 



Of Australian weapons the most interesting is the boomerang. Mr. 

 Brough Smyth, in his work on the aborigines, discredits the idea that there 

 is any connection between the boomerang and the throwing or crooked stick 

 of the Dravidian races of India, as has been contended, and insists that it 

 is sui generis. Its peculiar action depends upon a twist in the wood, the 

 twist of the screw, which may be imperceptible to the careless observer, but 

 which is always there. 



When a skilful thrower takes hold of a boomerang with the intention 

 of throwing it, he examines it carefully (even if it be his own weapon, and 

 if it be a strange weapon still more carefully), and, holding it in his hand, 

 almost as a reaper would hold a sickle, he moves about slowly, examining 

 all objects in the distance, needfully noticing the direction of the wind, as 

 indicated by the moving of the leaves of the trees and the waving of the 

 grass, and not until he has got 

 into the right position does he 

 shake the weapon loosely, so as 

 to feel that the muscles of his 

 wrist are under command. More 

 than once, as he lightly grasps 

 the weapon, he makes the effort A boomerang. 



to throw it. At the last moment, 



when he feels that he can strike the wind at the right angle, all his force 

 is thrown into the effort : the missile leaves his hand in a direction nearly 

 perpendicular to the surface ; but the right impulse has been given, and 

 it quickly turns its flat surface towards the earth, gyrates on its axis, makes 

 a wide sweep, and returns with a fluttering motion to his feet. This he 

 repeats time after time, and with ease and certainty. When well thrown, 

 the farthest point of the curve described is usually distant one hundred or 

 one hundred and fifty yards from the thrower. It can be thrown so as 

 to hit an object behind the thrower, but this cannot be done with certainty. 

 The slightest change in the direction of the wind affects the flight of the 

 missile to some extent ; but the native is quick in observing any possible 

 causes of interference. 



The northern blacks are the southern blacks, but are 'much more so.' 

 They are finer and fiercer men ; more given to slaughter, building better 

 houses, more intractable. The engraving on the next page depicts an 

 encampment of blacks on the shore, at the mouth of Wreck Creek, Rocking- 

 ham Bay, Queensland. The figure to the right of the picture is engaged 



