92 WKAP0N8 OF AUSTRALIAN TRIBES, &c. been formally receiveLl as a young man of the tribe by the rite of initiation could he venture to toucb the kangaroo, emu, or other specified animals. Hunting was the pride of life. The throwinn^- stick or woranierab added enormoasiy to the force with which the spear could be tln^own, and the boomerang was dangerous in war, and useful in procuring bii'ds. The war-boomerang and the boomerang thrown at game vent straight to their mark, rotating rapidly. The returning boomerang was a plaything. It has been found nowhere else than in Australia/-^ Sir George Grey vividly ■" The author cannot be deterred from thia attitement, by the fanciful deaa that the catein of Virgil was a boonieraDg — that anything like it has wen invtinted in Infli^ij or was represented in the hieroglyphs of aneient ' Egj-pt. The natural grain of wood was not more favourable to an artificer in Aufitnilia than in any other countrj . K Xpert carpenters have vainly tried to make a hoouierangT althoogh having an ex^^ellent eample to copy. They could aniooth the curved wood, bnt loiew not how tcj warp the mnga lateraUy. A card made to rotate and sent upwards at an angle of forty-tive degrees, but without elevation of either end in its flight, will rettnn to the sender, but it does not imitate the path of the boomerang. Three thin piecea of flat wood foiiteued crosswise in the middle will act like the card, hut will not follow the circular courts 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 ^ymg ring of light in the darkn&Bs, Tho expert thrower can with great nicety, by accommodating the strength u&ed, nmke the s.une boomerang follow alwaya the aame course and return to the same spot. DitFerent boomerauga require slightly different treatment in throwing, and follow different courses. The curved shape is well known. Of various lengths and widths, it forma a flat arc varying in width of wood, its curve varying from twenty degrees upwards. The Iwonierang 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 liight in depart- ing from the thrower without asauuung a horizontal position. That position was acquired on its return before it floated to tho ground. The ill-constructed instrument was thrown at a much less angle, the position l>ccanie liorizontal almost ionnettiately, and the path in the air was less circular than that of the welbmade boomerang. It was not in all places that appropriate tough wood was plentiful. The art which made the Wonierang return to the thrower, after 8eemingly fantastic circles, was expended on the warping of the wings. The side which was undermost as it flew was flatter than the other. Ihe thieknessi of the wood was greatest at about a thinl of the width from the outer edge of the arc. The edges were everywhere sharp. In each wing, or each half, there were alight, almost imperceptihle warps, which ruled the flight In formiug them the fashiotwi' Manned the wood over hot ashes (after it was shaped by the tonmlmwk}f and while its flexibility "waa iiiiivenscd, warped the boomerang 4 4
