When a skilled 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, heedfully noticing the direction of the wind as indicated by the moving of the leaves of 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 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 furthest 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.
It can be thrown so as to run along the ground for some distance, hoop-fashion, then ascend, describe a great curve, and return to the thrower. There is another method of throwing it. Lieut. Breton says:—"I have seen a native throw one so as to make it go forty or fifty yards horizontally, and not more than three or four feet from the ground; it would then suddenly dart into the air to the height of fifty or sixty yards, describe a very considerable curve, and finally fall at his feet."[1]
I have seen the natives at Coranderrk throwing the Wonguim on many occasions; and the skilful thrower seemed to be able to do exactly what he liked with the weapon. He would throw a thin blade in such a way as to make it almost disappear in the distance—indeed, when the edge was presented, it was for a moment or two impossible to follow the flight with the eye—it would then return, gyrate above the thrower in an absurd manner, descend and describe a curve as if it were about to strike him, go off in another direction, still descending, so as to alarm a group of blacks at a distance, and fall finally some yards behind him; the thrower, the while, regarding the weapon with an intelligent and amused expression, as if he knew exactly where it was going and where it would fall.
On one occasion I showed a Daylesford native a boomerang made by the blacks of Western Australia. The form of the weapon, the wood of which it was made, and the use for which it was intended, whether for play or war, were all unknown to him. I asked him if it would come back when thrown,
- ↑ Excursions in New South Wales, &c., by Lieut. Breton, p. 237.
