I purposely omit from this group the Konnung, or short stick sharpened at both ends, which seems to have been used at various times by uncivilized peoples in all parts of the earth for the purpose of killing birds and small animals. The Konnung is round; it is not a blade; and none of the figures in the group are round: they are blades.
In seeking for the origin of the Wonguim—the boomerang which returns when thrown—in endeavouring to ascertain the first steps which led to the invention of it, it is necessary to consider the character of the weapons, simple in themselves, which might, by some slight modification of structure, induce the natives to entertain the idea that an instrument of a certain form would return to the thrower when projected.
The reader will perceive, on carefully examining the figures in this work, that there is a gradual passage from the Kul-luk, which is not quite round nor yet quite a blade, to the Li-lil, which is thin and leaf-like in form. The Quirriang-an-wun is but a modification of the Li-lil, and from the Quirriang-an-wun to the Praah-ba-wittoo-ah there is but a step. If the Praah-ba-witto-ah were curved a little more, and if one amongst ten thousand of such had, by some accident, the twist which distinguishes the boomerang, the discovery would be made. It would be difficult to make many war-boomerangs without some twist or departure from the straight line; and if but one answered to the form of the Wonguim, the acute intelligence of the native would be awakened.
One cannot say whether or not the boomerang—the most remarkable of all weapons used by savages—was the result of trials of weapons of this class, but it is reasonable to imagine that the invention originated in some such way.
Mr. Hubert de Castella has suggested that the Aborigines derived the invention of the Wonguim from observation of the shape and the peculiar turn of the leaf of the white gum-tree. As the leaves of this tree fall to the ground, they gyrate very much in the same manner as the Wonguim does; and if one of the leaves is thrown straight forwards, it makes a curve and comes back. Such an origin for a weapon so remarkable is not to be put aside as unreasonable. It is very probable that if children played with such leaves, some old man would make of wood, to please them, a large model of the leaf, and its peculiar motions would soon give rise to curiosity and lead to fresh experiments.
In what manner the instrument was invented is perhaps, at this time, of small importance: that it is used over nearly the whole extent of the Australian continent, and that it has never been used anywhere else—as far as history enables one to judge—is a fact of surpassing interest.
It is said that the natives of California use a boomerang; but, according to the information I have been able to obtain, their weapon is a stick—somewhat like the Warra-warra or Konnung of the natives of Victoria—which is thrown at animals in the chase, and does not return to the thrower.
That many have recognised in the weapons of tribes in various parts of the world what they have conceived to be boomerangs or instruments having the property of returning to the thrower when projected, and that it has been attempted to prove that the boomerang was known to the ancients, arises principally from the circumstance that the form and character of the
