Most astonishing stories are told of the skill with which the Australians use this weapon.  They will aim at birds or small animals that are hidden behind trees and rocks, and the boomerang will go around the trees and rocks and kill the game.  They are the only people who can with any certainty shoot around a corner.  Not only do they throw the boomerang with unerring accuracy, but with tremendous force, and when it hits a man on the head, giving him two or three terrible raps as it twists about him, it is very apt to kill him.  To ward off these dangerous blows, the natives generally carry shields when they go out to fight.  Sometimes an Australian throws two boomerangs at once, one with his right hand and one with his left, and then the unfortunate man that he aims at has a hard time of it.

Many persons have endeavored to explain the peculiar turning and twisting properties of the boomerang, but they have not been entirely successful, for so much depends not only on the form of the weapon, but on the skill of the thrower.  But it is known that the form of the boomerang, and the fact that one of its limbs is longer and heavier than the other, gives its centre of gravity a very peculiar situation; and when the weapon is thrown by one end, it has naturally a tendency to rotate, and the manner of this rotation is determined by the peculiar impetus given it by the hand of the man who throws it.

It is well that we are able to explain the boomerang a little, for that is all we can do with it.  The savage cannot explain it at all; but he can use it.

But, after all, I do not know that a boomerang would be of much service to us even if we could use it.  There is only one thing that I can now think of that it would be good for.  It would be a splendid to knock down chestnuts with!

Just think of a boomerang going twirling into a chestnut-tree, twisting, turning, banging, and cracking on every side, knocking down the chestnuts in a perfect shower, and then coming gently back into your hand, all ready for another throw!

It would be well worth while to go out chestnuting, if we had a boomerang to do the work for us.

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Now our Ramblings must come to an end.  We cannot walk about the world for ever, you know, no matter how pleasant it may be.

And I wish I was quite sure that you have all found these wanderings pleasant.

As for me, there were some things that I did not like so well as others, and I suppose that that was the case with all of you.

But it could not be helped.  In this world some things will be better than others, do what we may.

One of these days, perhaps, we may ramble about again.  Until then, good-by!

THE END.

Charles Scribner’s Sons Books for Young Readers.

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