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WEAPONS OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES, &c.
been formally received as a young man of the tribe by the
rite of initiation could he venture to touch the kangaroo,
emu, or other specified animals. Hunting was the pride of
life. The throwing-stick or wommerah added enormously
to the force with which the spear could be thrown, and the
boomerang was dangerous in war, and useful in procuring
birds. The war-boomerang and the boomerang thrown at
game went straight to their mark, rotating rapidly. The
returning boomerang was a plaything. It has been found
nowhere else than in Australia.[1] Sir George Grey vividly
- ↑ The author cannot be deterred from this statement by the fanciful
ideas that the cateia of Virgil was a boomerang—that anything like it has
been invented in India, or was represented in the hieroglyphs of ancient
Egypt. The natural grain of wood was not more favourable to an artificer
in Australia than in any other country. Expert carpenters have vainly
tried to make a boomerang, although having an excellent sample to copy.
They could smooth the curved wood, but knew not how to warp the wings
laterally. A card made to rotate and sent upwards at an angle of
forty-five degrees, but without elevation of either end in its flight, will
return to the sender, but it does not imitate the path of the boomerang.
Three thin pieces of flat wood fastened crosswise in the middle will act
like the card, but will not follow the circular course which kept the
boomerang in air until it had traversed more than two hundred yards
in forward movements while rotating with a velocity which, if one
end be touched with fire, makes it look like a flying ring of light in the
darkness.
The expert thrower can with great nicety, by accommodating the strength used, make the same boomerang follow always the same course and return to the same spot. Different boomerangs require slightly different treatment in throwing, and follow different courses.
The curved shape is well known. Of various lengths and widths, it forms a flat are varying in width of wood, its curve varying from twenty degrees upwards. The boomerang made to return was more curved than the war-boomerang. Some tribes excelled others in the manufacture of the former. The perfect instrument thrown almost upright (to the right of the shoulder of the thrower) performed the whole of its flight in departing from the thrower without assuming a horizontal position. That position was acquired on its return before it floated to the ground. The ill-constructed instrument was thrown at a much less angle, the position became horizontal almost immediately, and the path in the air was less circular than that of the well-made boomerang. It was not in all places that appropriate tough wood was plentiful. The art which made the boomerang return to the thrower, after seemingly fantastic circles, was expended on the warping of the wings. The side which was undermost as it flew was flatter than the other. The thickness of the wood was greatest at about a third of the width from the outer edge of the arc. The edges were everywhere sharp. In each wing, or each half, there were slight, almost imperceptible warps, which ruled the flight In forming them the fashioner warmed the wood over hot ashes (after it was shaped by the tomahawk), and while its flexibility was increased, warped the boomerang
