TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 161 



Lave here exhibited a cb-awing of this most instructive specimen of the primeval 

 arts ot the Austrahans. lu tlie temporary museum established here durins- the 

 meetm^ ot the Association, you wUl see a case containing knives of stone, glass, and 

 iron, all of exactly the same form, and hafted, if one may use such a term for the 

 attempt to torm a handle, precisely in the same manner, showing with what 

 tenacity these people retain their ancient forms, even after they have been supplied 

 with Jiiuropean materials. 



Now it has been shown in some cases ; and here I especially refer to the account 

 lat^ely published by Mrs. MiUet, of the Native School established, under conditions 

 only partially favom'able to its success, in the interior of Western AustraUa*. The 

 Australians are found in some cases to be not only capable, but even quick in re- 

 ceiving instruction. It IS evident, therefore, that we should be wi'ong if we were to 

 attribute the extraordinary retardation of culture on the Australian continent to 

 racial incapacity alone ; racial incapacity is one item, but not the only item to be con- 

 sidered in studying the development of culture. 



The earliest inhabitants of the globe, as they spread themselves over the earth, 

 would carry with them the rudiments of culture which they possessed, and we should 

 naturally expect to find that the most primitive arts were, in the first instance, the 

 most widely disseminated. Amongst the primaeval weapons of the Australians I 

 have traced the boomerang and the rudimentary parrying shield (which latter is 

 especially a primitive implement) to the Dravidian races of the Indian peninsula and 

 to the ancient Egyptians ; and although this is not a circumstance to be relied upon 

 by itselt, it IS worthy of careful attention in connexion with the circumstance tbet 

 these races have aU been traced by Prof Huxlev to the Australoid stock, and th^t 

 a <:Onnexion between the Australian and Dravidian languages has been stated to 

 exist by Mr. Morris, the Rev. R. Caldwell, Dr. Bleek, and otherst. And here I 

 must ask for one moment to repeat the reply which I have elsewhere given to the 

 objection which has been made to my including these weapons under the same class, 

 VIZ. that the Dravidian boomerang does not return like the Australian weapon." 

 I he return flight is not a matter of such primary importance as to constitute a 

 generic diiierence, if 1 may use the expression : the utility of the return flio-ht has 

 been gjeatly exaggerated ; it is owing simply to the compai-ative thinness and light- 

 ness ot the Australian weapon. All who have witnessed its employment bv the 

 natives concur m saying that it has a random range in its return flight. Anv one 

 who vnW take the trouble to practise with the different forms of th^s weapoi will 

 perceive that the essential principle of the boomerang (call it by whatever name vou 

 please) consists m its bent and fl^at form, by means of which it can be thrown with 

 a rotatory movement, thereby increasing the range and flatness of the trajectory. I 

 have practised with the boomerangs of difierent nations. I made a facsimile of the 

 Egyptian boomerang in the British Museum, and practised with it for some time 

 upon A\ ormwood Scrubs, and I found that in time I could increase the rau-e from 

 fifty to one hundred paces, which is much further than I could throw an ordinai-v 

 stick of the same size with accuracy. I also succeeded in at last obtaining a return 

 flight, so that the weapon, alter flying seventy paces forward, returned to within 

 seven paces of the position m which I was standing. This settles the question of 

 the identity of the Egyptian boomerang ; in fact it flies better than many Austra- 

 lian boomerangs; for they vary considerably in size, weight, and form, and many 

 wiU not retm-n when thrown. The efficacy of the boomerang consists entirelv in the 

 rotation, by means of which it sails up to a bird upon the wing and Iniocks it down 

 with Its rotating arms ; very few of them have any twist in their construction. The 

 stories about hitting an object with accuracy behind the thrower are nursery tales; 

 but _ a boomerang when thrown over a river or swamp will return and be saved In 

 tracing the connexion between the arts of a people it is as necessary to studv the prin- 

 ciples of construction, as in tracing the connexion of languages or any other of the 

 productions of human intellect. To deny the affinity of the Australian and Dravidian 

 boomerang on account of the absence of a return flight would be the same as deny- 

 ing the aihnity of two languages whose grammatical construction was the same 

 because ot their differing materially in their vocabularies. 



* Australian Parsonage, or the Settler and the Savage, by Mrs. E. Millet chap vii 

 T Journal of the Anthropological Institute, No. I. vol. i., July 1871. ' 



