AUSTRALIA 



55 



direct the reader's attention to the epleudid exhibition of arms, clothing, and ornaments of all 

 the primitive peoples in the ethnographical collection at the British Museum, now under the 

 care of Mr. C. H. Read. The University of Oxford possesses a very fine ethnographical 

 collection, and that of the Blackmore Museum at Salisbury is also most admirable. Heavy 

 spears the Australian Aborigines can throw by hand a distance of from 50 to 70 feet; 

 light spears, hurled by means of a throwing-stick, may travel as far as 100 yards, for this 

 implement gives a powerful leverage. Their accuracy in throwing is wonderful. 



We must say a few words about that remarkable Australian weapon the boomerang. It 

 is a flat piece of hard wood, about as large as a scimitar (though sometimes smaller), bent in 

 the middle, flat on one side and a little rounded on the other. For this purpose pieces of 

 wood that are naturally curved are selected; hence their strength. The boomerangs used 

 in warfare are large and heavy, with pointed ends, and capable of inflicting a serious wound. 

 In hunting, and especially for killing birds, a smaller boomerang, the ends of which are 

 slightly twisted in opposite directions, is used. It has the remarkable property of changing 

 its course while in the air, and finally returning to the thrower. It is hardly necessary to 

 say that the boomerang, 

 while travelling forward 

 with great speed, revolves 

 rapidly on its own axis, 

 and takes a slanting 

 direction. In the use of 

 this weapon dexterity is 

 required rather than 

 strength. 



Some of the Austra- 

 lian Aborigines are trog- 

 lodytes, or dwellers in 

 caves, like the prehistoric 

 men of Europe (see the 

 writer's " Prehistoric Man 

 and Beast"). But caves 

 are only to be found in 

 certain districts. More- 

 over, as we have already 

 remarked, the Aborigines 

 lead a rather wandering 

 life. They usually erect 

 rude huts or screens, 

 constructed of whatever 

 material happens to be 

 at hand twigs and 

 bushes, covered with 

 bark, turf, or leaves. 

 These shelters are purely 

 temporary, but serve for 

 a few weeks or months, 

 until the family moves 

 on. In the north and 

 north-west, where Papuan 

 influence evidently comes 

 in, they build regular 

 huts, as high as a man, A .NATIVE WAKKIOH. I'Hi.M'K OF WALKS ISLAND. 



Kernj it 



