blunt barb, which fits into a nick at the head of the spear; and the hand of the thrower also grasps at the same time the other end of the woomera, and the spear about three feet from the butt. Upon launching the spear, the woomera is retained in the hand, and thus acts as a powerful lever, usually commanding a range of 90 or 100 yards, which is considerably more than it could be sent in the ordinary manner.

The spears are of two sorts: one perfectly solid, and about seven or eight feet in length; the other, which can be thrown to a greater distance, is made of light reeds, joined together with gum and fibres of the bark of trees, and terminating in a point of very hard and heavy wood.

The most curious missile is the boomering, which may unquestionably be considered the most extraordinary offensive weapon ever found in the possession of savages. It is a thin curved piece of wood, varying from two to three feet in length, and about two inches broad; one side is slightly rounded, the other is perfectly flat. When thrown, it must be held by that end which brings the flat side on the right hand, or outside; and the convex edge of the weapon must be nearest to the thrower, to whom, therefore, when he is in the act of dismissing it from the hand, the edge alone is visible. It is used in warfare, for killing game, and also for amusement; and the shape consequently varies a little with its intended application: a war boomering is the largest, and being merely constructed to fly in a straight direction, has less curve than the other kinds, and but little difference between its two sides. This is the most formidable weapon the blacks possess, as well from its power of inflicting a serious wound at a considerable distance, as from its extraordinary evolutions, which render it difficult to be avoided.

The shape of the other two varieties of this weapon is nearly the same. They are shorter, and usually of ruder construction, but far more curious in their action; they are also more serviceable to the black than the spear, whenever he is in pursuit of smaller game, from the ease with which they can be concealed in the folds of his blanket or opossum-cloak, while he steals on his

prey.

But it is only when thrown for amusement that the wonders of the boomering are fully developed. Whenever there was a

camp of blacks near our station, it used to be our great delight to assemble a few of the most promising of its inmates, and offer a prize, some tobacco or flour, to the one who acquitted himself the best with his boomering; thus pitted against each other in friendly strife, they would go to work in earnest, and fairly astonish the white men. Doubtful as it may seem to those who have never witnessed the feat, an Australian black can throw this whimsical weapon so as to cause it to describe a complete circle in the air; or, to give the reader a better idea of what is meant, he would stand in front of a tolerably large house, on the grass plot before the door, and send his boomering completely round the building, from right to left; that is to say, it would, upon leaving his hand, vanish round the right corner, and, re-appearing at the left, eventually fall at his feet. The whole circumference of the circle thus described is frequently not less than 250 yards and upwards, when hurled by a strong arm; but the wonder lies wholly in its encircling properties, and not in the distance to which it may be sent.

When forcibly thrown, its course is very rapid, equalling the speed of an arrow for about 50 yards, until it arrives at the point where it first begins to alter its course; thence it continues its career at about half speed, and so gradually flies with diminishing impetus, until, as usual, it returns to the spot whence it started. Its flight is not unlike that of a bird; and occasionally, when great strength has been exerted, it hovers for a few moments before it falls to the ground, and, continuing its rotatory motion, remains in other respects quite stationary, much in the same way as a humming-top when it goes to sleep on the ground. A deep hurtling sound accompanies its course, during the whole of which it revolves with such rapidity as to appear like a wheel in the air.

By holding it at the opposite extremity, so as to bring the flat side on the left hand, a circle may be described in the other direction, i. e. from left to right, for the flat must always be the outer side. But the prettiest evolution it can be made to perform is the following:-It is thrown with a tendency downwards; upon which, after having gone some 20 yards, one point of it tips the ground, three times successively, at intervals of about the same distance, rebounding with a sound like the twang of a

harp-string meanwhile it still continues its circular course, until, as before, it returns to the thrower. This feat is more difficult to accomplish than that of sending it through the air, and requires all the thrower's skill; there is one precise distance, and no other, at which it should first strike the ground, for, if it does so too forcibly, its progress is wholly arrested; and if, on the other hand, it is not sufficiently depressed, and fails to come in contact with the ground, its course is then completely altered, for, shortly after passing the place where it ought to have rebounded, it begins to rise, and towers up in the air to the height of about 50 feet, whence it falls down, almost perpendicularly.

There is considerable difficulty in acquiring the knack of using this weapon; few Europeans accomplish it, and those who succeed are at best poor imitators of the blacks, who practise it from childhood; and even at that tender age they may be seen disporting themselves around their "gunyios," or camps, with boomerings proportioned to their strength; as the young peons of South America show promise of future dexterity with the lasso, in its earlier use on the pigs and poultry.

We were never tired of witnessing the performances of the blacks; as they warmed with the exercise, and put forth their utmost strength and skill, several of the boomerings would be whizzing around us together; there was endless variety in their evolutions, and in the incomprehensible feats they occasionally performed; thus we used to gaze on them with undiminished interest, as they cut through the clear Australian air, until darkness put an end to the exhibition.

The principle of the boomering has never yet been satisfactorily explained; I never could understand it, and it has puzzled far wiser heads than mine.

What is there in its shape that causes it to describe a circle? The rule of its construction the blacks themselves either cannot, or will not, explain. However, by merely grasping a boomering in the hand, and poizing it, they can tell at once, without throwing it, whether or not it will fly. I have often shaved some of the wood from one, thinking to improve it thereby, and a black, upon taking hold of it, has at once declared it to be "bale budgery" (no good), which, upon trial, always proved to be the case; the little that I had taken

from it, by destroying the balance, had completely deprived the weapon of its power of motion.

For a long time we used to puzzle over the matter, and once entertained thoughts of submitting it to some senior wrangler at Cambridge; but gradually ceased to cudgel our brains about it any more, on the plea that it must be inexplicable, and that, with the ornithorhynchus, the native cherry, and many other animal and vegetable productions of Australia, it was, and must remain, a paradox.

The heelŏman is a sort of shield, made of the toughest wood procurable, about three feet in length, and six inches in breadth at the centre, whence it gradually tapers off to a point at either extremity. The handle is in the middle, and is merely a small aperture, just large enough to admit the hand. It is chiefly used in the duels which frequently occur, both between individuals of hostile, and of the same tribes. For certain misdemeanours, such, for instance, as stealing a "gin," the offending party has to pay the penalty of standing within a moderate distance, thirty yards or so, of the bereaved husband, to whom a certain number of spears or boomerings are allotted, of which the ravisher has to bear the brunt, defended only by his heeloman. Several of these duels took place at different times in our neighbourhood; and on such occasions there would be a numerous muster of the tribe, and a great deal of speculation as to the issue of the contest, which, however, as if the Hottentot Venus herself had turned aside the darts, usually produced more noise than bloodshed.

The most singular duel is one that our tribe used to fight with the club. Everybody is aware of the superior thickness of skull possessed by the descendants of Ham, and it is nowhere put to a severer test than among the aborigines of Australia. The preliminaries having been arranged by the rest of the tribe, the combatants advance towards each other, one bearing his " waddy," the other wholly unarmed. There is no rush at the commencement, and little excitement on either side. He who is first destined to bear the fortune of war quietly puts down his head, and in due time his antagonist's blow comes down upon it "bang." The waddy then changes hands, and the receiver becomes the assailant. In some instances there is a limit assigned to the number of blows, but in others the duel is protracted; in which

I

case it may be supposed to terminate in the insensibility of one or both of the combatants, though, as with the spear and heeloman, I seldom heard of a fatal result: but, in either case, fortune can hardly be said to favour the brave, for a stout heart would be of little service to a champion with a brittle head.

The majority of our tribe were very expert thieves, and on this account their first visit to us ended very abruptly. A large tobacco keg in the store was observed to be rapidly losing its contents, by what means we were at a loss to discover, as the building was perfectly secure. To prevent further loss, the keg was ordered to be removed elsewhere; and it was no sooner shifted out of its position than the secret was revealed. Through the wooden slab which formed part of the wall, and against which it had been placed, was discovered a hole, very small, but sufficiently large to admit an old "gin's" arm, which is the thinnest that could possibly belong to a human being. The hole was not visible from the outside, owing to a heap of firewood having been piled up against it. One of the tribe, who had been admitted inside the store, had noticed the exact situation of the keg containing their chief luxury, and had worked away stealthily from the exterior, carefully replacing the firewood when the hole had been completed, through which he had thus been enabled to act as a purveyor to the wants of his tribe.

An expedition to their encampment was the result of the detection of the theft, and we flattered ourselves that we should at least have the satisfaction of recovering part of the missing property; but they were gone, having again forestalled us, and did not reappear until many weeks afterwards, when sufficient time had elapsed to allow them to smoke their spoils in peace, and lay the blame, as usual, upon some hostile tribe, whom they represented as being "thousand saucy," and bad enough to steal anything.