The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-06-06 00:00:00

rises were the trials in the throwing .4 the bo.meiasig
and the spear. For these wsrlike pastimes the Aus-
tralians had east aside their erieketing costume in
favour of close-fitting black woollen suit's, which gave
them, at some distance, the appearance of being clad
in strict aboriginal fashion, with only the &holt trunks
or drawers of kang woo or other 'kind of shin that
a savage would wear. They affected beside, a head-
dress of two long feather., crewed in a -peculiar
and not ungraceful curve. Standing in line, they cast
their primitivelw.king javelins with great force and
skill, sending them, as the archers of olden days
sent their arro • s, high in the air,,to gain a heiger flight
and &poet effectual nab,: The mode of *owing these -
long, ogket, tough knees, side, m'ere naturaispears
of shypined wpoti, unslaSiboandlinif y w raged w is a .
Piece of 0110.7+f thelarger grasses. likdl and 5..•, is rather
curious. The thrower holds a short piece of wood, with
a notch in the end farthest from his hand; in this notch
he places the butt of the Shear; and in making
°this
throw, he thus gains the same momentum that is given
by a sling. After competing in line, the blacks took
sides, and thre a at each other, often managing to send
their lances into the earth, at the very feet of their
opponents, who seemed to know exactly where the
point would strike, and awaited its fall without moving
an inch. The boomerang, though not entirely strange
to this country, having been introduced. some years
since, as a toy of the most formidable kind, has never
been so skilfully employed in English hands as in the
hands of these natives of Australia, whose untutored
progenitors must have discovered by accident or
instinct a seemingly paradoxical phenomenon in
the law which governs projectiles. The boome-
rang is a strong, broad, curved lath, convex on
its upper and flat 011 its lower surface. It is
Propelled forwards skimming and twirling through
the air with a loud whir ; and when it has
touched the ground with one end it instantly rises,
and continues to gyrate in the most wonderful manner
at a great height, now sailing like a swallow, now
, poising itself like a skylark, and now flying in circles like
pigeon, till it swoops like a hawk, and falls, some-
times near the man who has thrown it, sometimes a
considerable distance behind him. The motions of
the boomerang are so erratic that one can hardly
imagine how it can ever lie useful as a weapon of
warfare or an implement of the chase ; and its em-
ployment for pastime will need a wider field even
than Kennington Oval, where it came flying twice or
thrice among the spectators, cutting one person's hat
nearly into two pieces. . The only other performance
on the part of the blacks that deserves praise or calls
for special notice was Diek-a-Dick's really marvellous
display of proficiency in dodging cricket-balls. Armed
only with. a long narrow shield, shaped like a canoe,
and with a strange club or bat in the form of the letter
L, with the gout in its one foot, he stood up boldly to
lie pelted by expert throwers, not one of whom could
touch him. Taking no notice of a ball that passed an
inch or two from his head, legs, or body, he baffled
every direct aim in a manner that drew forth loud
expressions of admiring surprise. His attitudes were
all very picturesque, and sometnnes quaintly droll ;
and he would now and then drop on one knee, or by
way of change, stand or dance, with his instruments of
defence lying idle at his feet.