Page:Aboriginesofvictoria01.djvu/395

Rh The Wonguim, or boomerang (Fig. 95), is known, it is believed, nearly throughout the whole extent of the island-continent. The weapon here figured is one used by the natives of Victoria. It measures twenty inches and a half from point to point; its greatest breadth is two inches and a half, and the greatest thickness about half an inch. It is a flat curved blade, with peculiarities of form which will be described hereafter. The weight of these weapons varies from four ounces to ten and a half ounces. Those as light as four ounces are rarely used in Victoria, but such light weapons seem to be much in favor in Western Australia.

The woods commonly used for making boomerangs are the limbs of the ironbark and she-oak, but the roots of the various kinds of eucalypti are in some places highly esteemed.

Very good boomerangs, of the class to which the Wonguim belongs, are sometimes made of the bark of the gum-trees. The bark is cut into the right shape, and heated in ashes and twisted slightly. Weapons made of bark may have a good flight, but they are not so valuable as those made of hard wood. Even those made of wood are not seldom heated, softened, and twisted; but the best Wonguims are cut with a tool into the right shape. The eye of the maker guides every stroke, and when the instrument is finished it is not necessary to heat it and bend it.

The Wonguim returns to the feet of the thrower when skilfully thrown. Generally it is so fashioned as to describe a curve from right to left; but one in my possession, which I have seen thrown with precision, so as to return every time to within a short distance of the thrower, is a left-hand boomerang. It describes a curve from left to right.

The boomerang here described is usually regarded as a plaything: it is not a war-boomerang; and though it is occasionally used in battle, and sometimes for killing birds and small animals, it is not so handy as the short stick named Konnung.

At the present time the natives of Western Australia appear to use the Wonguim very often in their battles; but in serious engagements it would not be deemed a sufficient weapon.

In form, in length, and in weight, the boomerangs which return vary a good deal. The men who are most skilful in shaping these instruments rarely make two of the same pattern. They are chipped and smoothed as experiments made from time to time suggest alterations, and the weapon is not finally completed until it has been thrown successfully, and has come back in the manner desired by the maker.