Page:Moyarra- An Australian Legend in Two Cantos, 1891.djvu/58

 The writer proceeded to explain mathematically how such results might be brought about.

If he had known that no Australian ever threw a boomerang "with the convex side outwards" and that the boomerang of war, "used as an offensive weapon," was so constructed that it was impossible for it to return to the thrower, he need not have "cudgelled his brains" to account for that which had no existence.

In the Sydney Gazette of 1804 it is recorded that at a fight, witnessed by the whites, Dungaree "distinguished by his remarkable courtesy," threw a war-boomerang with such force that, striking at some distance, "the right arm of one of his opponents, it actually rebounded to a distance of not less than seventy or eighty yards, leaving a horrible contusion behind, and exciting universal admiration."

7(p. 22). "Not there the courtly wreathed smile."

Those who have only contemptuously or cursorily observed the habits of the Australians can scarcely imagine how gay and good humoured they could be. Those who have really gained their confidence will admit that the simple black was at once the blithest and most cheerful companion.

8(p. 24). "Who? Who? Moyarra!"

The perceptions of the Australians were so keen that this line implies no exaggeration. Expert trackers knew at a glance whose footprint they met, if they had had previous opportunities of becoming acquainted with it.

9(p. 25). "By Mytah and the one she loved."

Maugre all the accounts, and I regret to say the true accounts which have been given of the vile subjection to