HOW TO THROW THE BOOMERANG.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 88, 15 April 1899, Page 3 (Supplement)

HOW TO THROW THE BOOMERANG.

BoomeTangs are of two ' kinds—returning, 'Marndwullun wunkun' in the native

lingo; , ; .and,. non-returning, .'Tootgundy. wunkun.' The first is called invariably the Australian boomerang, because it originated amoung the natives of Australia, and is used almost exclusively by them at the present day. Travellers assert that a native will leave his home in the morning, armed only with a couple of returning boomerangs, and will come back at night carrying a large number of birds killed with these strange weapons: The boomerang that cornea not back differs little from an ordinary club, and is of no special interest. It is, however, preferred to the other by the Australian aboriginal of to-day. 'Marndwullun no good for fight,' he will say, 'if he no hit 'im man, might come back, and hit you or friend beside you' —truly an undesirable quality in a weap. on of offence. t The boomerang of the returning kind is formed of a bent stick, one side rounded, the other flat. The Australians make it from the boughs of the acacia pendula, or from some tree of similar growtn, giving to the green wood the desired curvature in the fire. It is necessary to choose a very hard, strong, and heavy wood, and the best plan is to cut a piec£ from a natural bend or root of a tree, and to let the curve of the boomerang follow the grain of the wood. One hardly ever sees two boomerangs of the same shape, for they vary from a slight curve to nearly a right -angle. They differ also in length from 15 inches to 3i feet, and in breadth from 2 inches to 3 inches. They should be about three eights of an inch thick, tapering toward the ends, which may be either round or pointed, while the edge must be sharpened all round. One side must be convex the other fiat, the sharpness of the edge along the convexity of the curve varying in different boomerangs. When thrown, the boomerang travels forward for some distance, and then generally returns in an ellipse to within a few paces of the thrower. If the boomerang strikes its mark it falls to the ground. In throwing, it must be grasped at one end, stretched back behind the shoulder, and then brought rapidly forward above the head, the inside of the curve facing the direction in which it is thrown. It may be either hurled upward into the air, or downward so as to strike the ground at some distance from the thrower. In the first case it flies with a rotatory motion, as its shape would indicate, and after ascending to a great height, it suddenly returns in an elliptical orbit to a spot near its starting point. When thrown downward to the ground it rebounds in a straight line, pursuing a ricochet motion until it strikes the obiect at which it is cast. To throw the Australian boomerang in such a way as to make sure of its doing exactly what one wants is one of the most difficult feats in the world. Mr Alfred W. Howitt, who has seen the natives of Victoria practising with the boomerang, mentions that he questioned some blacks as to whether they thought it was possible to throw it so as to insure its returning to the hand of ;he thrower. Seven said 'No,' and characterised the statement as 'jet bollan,' i.e., a falsehood; the eighth said he once made a,boomerang that when thrown on a calm day with great care would gyrate round and round until It descended to ■ the Ground not far from him, moving as slowly as a leaf falling from a tree; and that he once ran forward and nearly caught it. He said.also 'no kurni (blackfellow) can catch- a wunkun when he flying-he would cut his hand open.' The throwing of boomerangs has always been carried on in the open air, and no Australian native has ever-attempted to use them in a building.