FEMALES CARRYING CHILDREN.

We trace a further resemblance between this rude people and the orientals in their common method of carrying children on their shoulders; and the sketch of Turandurey with Ballandella so mounted (Plate 24) affords the best illustration of a passage in Scripture which has very much puzzled commentators.* But the savage tribes of mankind as they approach nearer to the condition of animals seem to preserve a stronger resemblance to themselves and to each other.  The uniform stability of their manners seems a natural consequence of the uncultivated state of their faculties; and it is satisfactory to discover such direct illustrations of ancient history among these rude and primitive specimens of our race.

(Footnote.  “Was the custom anciently the reverse of this?  So it might be imagined from Isaiah 49:22.  ’They shall bring thy sons in their arms and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders’”!  Harmer’s Oriental Customs.)

WEAPONS.  THE SPEAR.  WOOMERA.

The weapons used by the natives are not more remarkable and peculiar in their construction than general in their use on every shore of New Holland.  The spear is thrown by means of a woomera which is a slight rod about three feet long having at one end a niche to receive the end of the spear.  The missile is shot forward by this means with great force and accuracy of direction; for by the peculiar method of throwing the spear the woomera affords a great additional impetus from this most ingenious lengthening of the arm to that extent.*

(Footnote.  For the shape of the woomera see Moyengully Plate 49 above; and the manner of throwing the spear may be seen in Plate 8 Volume 1.)

THE BOOMERANG.  ITS PROBABLE ORIGIN.

The boomerang, a thin curved missile, can be thrown by a skilful hand so as to rise upon the air and thus to deviate from the ordinary path of projectiles, its crooked course being nevertheless equally under control.  It is of the form here represented, being about two feet four inches long.  These weapons are cut according to the grain from the curved parts of acacia or other standing trees of compact hard wood.  They usually weigh about 9 1/2 ounces.  One side, which is the uppermost in throwing, is slightly convex, and is sometimes elaborately carved.  The lower side is flat and plain.  The boomerang is held, not as a sabre, but sickle-wise, or concave towards the thrower and, as a rotatory motion is imparted to it when sent off, the air presents so much resistance to the flat side and so little to the sharp edge as it cuts forward, that the long-sustained flight of the whirling missile seems independent of the common effect of gravitation.

The native, from long practice, can do astonishing things with this weapon.  He seems to determine with great certainty what its crooked and distant flight shall be, and how and where it is to end.  Thus he frequently amuses himself in hurling the formidable weapon to astonishing heights and distances from one spot to which the missile returns to fall beside him.  Sometimes the earth is made a fulcrum to which the boomerang descends only to resume a longer and more sustained flight, or to leap, perhaps, over a tree and strike an object behind it.