48 Director's Annual Report. 



mediate forms of the latter, and also of other weapons and the 

 boomerang, have been met with. In this reference it is intere.sting 

 to note the frequent occurrence among the Australian weapons of 

 specimens whose secftion shows one surface distindlly more convex 

 than the other — an invariable attribute of all boomerangs. It must 

 be remembered that the war boomerang did not return to the point 

 of traje(5lion, and the development of this weapon to the conven- 

 tional pattern was more probably due to a slow process of experi- 

 ment and improvement than to accidental discovery, to which the 

 returning boomerang probably owes its origin. 



The occurrence of the boomerang among the ancient Assyrians 

 and the Egyptians, whose sculpture occasionally represents weapons 

 of apparently similar construction, is often advanced, as is also 

 reference to such a weapon in ancient literature. Whatever former 

 people were familiar with its properties, it appears conclusive that 

 all authentic record of such knowledge has been lost. 



One of the most characteristic impulses of the Australian was 

 to throw at his quarry or adversary, and every weapon was, on 

 occasion, used in this manner. • Following the same line of improve- 

 ment as had already produced'the spatulate sword from the i)rimi- 

 tive cylindrical club, the Australian was not long in learning that 

 a flat missile cleaves the air more easily and has a greater effedtive 

 range than a round one. At the same time he unconsciously took 

 advantage of the fact that the suspension of a thin plane moving 

 horizontally with the earth is assisted by atmospheric resistance. 

 The gradual evolution of the boomerang was the result. 



The war form of this weapon differs from the returning variety 

 chiefly in its angle of curvature, which is more obtuse, and in the 

 fact that it lies in one plane and is not twi.sted, to which latter de- 

 vice the return boomerang owes its elliptical trajectory. All boome- 

 rangs, however, have the surface, which in flight lies upper, more 

 convex than the lower, and the convex or outer margin sharpl}^ 

 edged. The war boomerang is an effedlive and dangerous weapon, 

 having a range of 150 yds., and having been known to pass com- 

 pletely through an adversary when the body was first struck by the 

 point of the weapon. Boomerangs were often manufactured and 

 bartered in pairs, being cut together from one piece of suitably 

 shaped wood. The possessor of a good jiair would not readily dis- 

 pose of them separately. 



[188] 



