G A THKUWER. gyratory rotationa to the gvovin(L a card. But the boomerang whose patb has not been explained pursued a totally different course. D Thrown to the right of tht- thrower (A) it went in a circuit. C Starting from A it ^vould at B be 40 or 50 feet hiij;h : a till rising it wonlti be at D more than lUU feet B high and 80 or lUO pates from the throwcii' ; nt i it might be as high or higher than at D, and would then, if a perfect instrument, tloat _ _ Thrown almoBt perpendicuhitiy sc as to strike the ground between A and B it would rise in the air and pursue a course similar to^ but not quite so lengthy as, that just described. The point at G nught be variable according to the strength imparted. The boomerang might hnisli its main circle at F^ or, if remarkably good, might first pass over the thrawer's head, and then coniineoce its descending gyrations. A boomerang made narrower and heavier wonhl make the circuit without rising more than 40 feet, and continue its course (without ever assuming a horizontal position) until it reached the groimd (after passing the thrower) at or beyond B. Rarely there were left-handed natives. They made boomerangB which circled from left to right. They could, however, by lowering the head and bringing the left hand over the right shoulder^ throw a right-hand boomerang; ami, i^ice veritd^ a right-handed man could throw a leftdiand boomerang. Though one side of the instrument was flatter than the other, and the warps of each half were almost, but not <|uite, identical, it was not the fact that so long as the llattest side was thrown outermost the boomerang might be thrown indid'erently hy making a handle of either eotl. Tlierefore the left-handed man could not throw a rightdiand boomerang by simply making a handle of the opposite end to that nsed by the right-hauded man, and throwing from left to rightv The natives wlien fashioning a boomerang always insisted that if it performed the first half of rta circuit well, and failed in itb second, it ' was because the end not used aa a handle was deHuiently Marped, and I they proceeded to warp it properly. There remains, to vouch for their accurac}^, the fact that each boomerang was constructed so that it could only be thrown properly by using the end htted by the fashioner to be the handle The catalogue remarked at South Kensington (p Til) that the fac-iiinulti of the Egy^itiau boomerang, 167 to ItitJ, iig. IK, *Mvith practice conld be made to return to within a few feet of the feet of the thrower." The figure in the catalogue did not show the thickness of the ends of the weapon, or the roundness of its ends, but to unynne conversant with the returning boomerang of Australia, a sight of tlie far-imih^ showed that it wan absolutely impossible for the so-called Kgyptiau boomerangs to pursue the path of the Australian. The same thing may be said of those shown aa Dravidian booraeranga. Other weapons were exhibited as ** modern African Iron Boomerangs," but unless every missile hurled so as to rotate is to be called a boomerang, it is difficult t^ discover %vhy the term is thus applied. A tomahawk or a knife may be made to rotate, biit always with foi^war^ progress; and a glance at the weaiKins of the Kolia of Giij&orat, anil the Sliirmritr of Madura, as well as those from Kattyawar, in the South 4 4
