92 
HORN EXPEDITION—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
it is not a product of that part of the country. This has the general shape of one 
of the ordinary short boomerangs, in which the curve is very open and confined to 
one limb, but in addition there projects from the convex edge, at the end of the 
curved or distal moiety, a spike or beak flattened in the same plane as the body of 
the instrument, which is evidently fashioned out of a small branch (or root) which 
sprang at a suitable angle from the stem out of which the curved part was hewn. 
This beak makes an angle of about 80 degrees with the body and is, in the specimens 
collected, from 4| to 5 inches long, with a width of to 24 inches at its point of 
origin, thence tapering to a width of an inch or less at the point which is rounded. 
The wood resembles that of Mulga or some other acacia in its combination of 
light yellow alburnum and dark brown heart-wood. The more convex side only 
shows longitudinal groovings which are continued on to the beak. All are red- 
ochred uniformly. 
Tlie first specimens of this peculiar weapon which reached the South 
Australian Museum were discovered in 1884 by Captain Carrington of the 
s.s. Palmerston^ in a cave in a sandstone hill on the western shores of the 
Culf of Carpentaria,* and were afterwards presented to the Museum by F. J. 
Sanderson, Esq. Subsequently, during an overland journey from Port Darwin 
to Adelaide, I found that they were in use amongst all the tribes, north of the 
McDonnell Ranges, through which we passed and were especially common amongst 
the Daly Waters tribe. We have also some examples from as far south as the Peake 
Station. I believe it is a northerly form of weapon which only finds its way south 
by importation. Many of those seen north of tlie McDonnells, in addition to the 
general red-ochre colouration, had the beak and adjacent part of the limb from 
which it springs decorated with patterns of white or yellow pigment. 
I was informed that this implement is thrown from the hand like the ordinary 
boomerang, and I could not gather that any special use is made of the beak, which 
indeed must be extremely liable to be broken off when used in this way. 
Missile Sticks (Plate V., Figs. 4-6). 
Under this head may be included a group of missile weapons which are 
interesting as showing, in the most direct way, a transitional series from a 
perfectly straight cylindrical stick to the distinct, if sometimes slight, curvatui'e 
and flattened sides of the boomerang {^ide Figs. 4-8, Plate Y.) 
* Rivers of the Northern Territory of South Australia. Captain Carrington. Transact. Geograph. Soc. of 
Australasia, South Australian Branch, 1886. 
