Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/122

 Some were mere playthings. The one which travellers delighted to see circling in the air and returning in waving circles to the thrower was made only for amusement, but the traveller often supposed that the implement was made to return to its owner in case of missing its object in battle; and thus an absurd error was received in England as truth.

The rapidity of rotation of all boomerangs made their blow sharp, and the weight and velocity of war-boomerangs made them dangerous. The boomerang made to return to the thrower was thrown with the hollow of the are forward, and with great force, at an angle varying from 45 degs. upwards, from the shoulder of the thrower, according to its special construction and gravity; and the pressure of the air against its outer or flattest side insured its correct flight. No less than six lateral warps, and two shapings with the tomahawk at the ends, were comprised in the plaything. The thrower could cause it to strike the ground about fifteen yards from him, and then rise and pursue its returning course, though not so fast or far as when thrown in the normal manner. If it struck a tree the toy- boomerang was almost always shattered, and the Australians abstained from throwing it where trees were near. It was in open spaces thrown at wild ducks if it happened to be the only missile at hand; but as it would only travel in its circuit, it had only one possible point of intersection with the flight of the birds; whereas the weapons made for the purpose pursued them.

The boomerang of war was massive compared to the toy, and carefully constructed with warps peculiar to itself so as to insure its forward progress, ricochetting as it went at every contact with the ground until the great force communicated to it by the thrower was spent. Some were so heavy that only a powerful man could throw them well. The war-boomerang required less skill in construction than the toy, but when only stone hatchets were used, much labour was required in fashioning it. Its lateral warpings, which a careless observer might fail to detect, differed altogether from those of the toy-boomerang.

The Sydney Gazette of 1804 records that, at a battle among the natives, Bungaree, "distinguished by his remark-