Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/553

Rh "Frank paced off fifty yards from the performer, and placed a shilling in the end of a split stick four feet long, which was then stuck in the ground just far enough to hold it up. We offered the shilling to the man if he would knock out the coin without disturbing the stick, and he did it, but the boomerang did not return.

"Our friend told us that the powers of the return-boomerang had been greatly exaggerated. The non-returning one is the real weapon, and is greatly to be feared in the hands of a skilful thrower. It has been known to hit a man behind a tree or a rock, where he was quite safe from bullet, spear, or arrow; and if an expert in its use comes within throwing distance of a kangaroo or an emu, the creature's fate is sealed.

"He further said he had never known a white man to become expert in the use of the boomerang, though many had practised with it for years.

"We asked if the natives knew how long ago and by whom the boomerang was invented. He shook his head and said no one could give any account of it; but as all the tribes throughout the country are familiar with it, it must be of very ancient date. He said there was a theory that the natives derived the invention from observing the peculiar shape and turn of the leaf of the white gum-tree. As the leaves fall to the ground they gyrate, very much as does the boomerang, and if one of the leaves is thrown straight forward, it gyrates and comes back.

"Such an origin is certainly quite possible. Children might be playing with such leaves, and to please them a man might make a large leaf of wood, and from this the boomerang may have been developed. Quien sabe?

"And with this query of 'Who can tell?' we will drop the