Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-06-08
TIE BOOMERANG.
WHAT THIS CRLDE WEAPON CAN
ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISH.

g Wv
to be a fiat stick Of wood bent into a
shape which suggests the combination
of a V and a U, although with the ex-
tremities spread apart until they are at
right angles with each other. In point
of fact, DoomeranGs are Of almost every
shape, from serni-circular TO nearly
straight, and seem to depend for their
efficiency not SO much upon the evident
form rs upon the curves which are
shown upon their fat sides. If one takes
a boomerang and looks along its sharp
outer edge it is seen that this edge pre-
sents n wavy ap~pearance-a delicately
adjusted sinuosity like the line of a long
screw. This curve is not deliberately
fashioned or smoothed into e%venness;
the hard wood Of which the boomerang
is usually made, being picked out with
short blows from n sharpened flint held
in.ths hand, almost always shows, in
deed. infinite irregularities.
NO UNIFORM PLAN.
What rule of construction the savage
artificer follows even he himself would
probably be unable to say. Yet he has
some definite plan in mind. no doubt, for
while he chips and pecks away at the
wood he takes frequent squints along its
edge to see how his curves are progress.
ing. | have never seen two boomerangs
that were just alike, but all are similar
in their relations of curves along the fiat
side. The boomerang maker knows in
stinctively just where his boomerang
will go when he throws it, although he
never seems 10 aim any two ia the same
way.
More lies have been told about the
boomerang than can be well enumerated,
and nearly every Australian traveller
comes back with n fresh assortment.
One hears of men who can SO throw n
boomerang that it kills an enemy behind
a tree and then comes chcerfully Gutter-
ing back to its owner, who thereupon
hurls it on a fresh mission Of carnage.
\ flock of frightened ~cockatoos, speed
ing in intricate gyrations through air to
escape the attack of natives who want a
bird for dinner, are pursued at every
turn by these erratic weapons, which
strike them down a dozen each, and so
return to the hand that cast them. Old
wives fables these. at which Australians
laugh, knowing in the nature of things
their falsity.
In the first place the wal boomerang
is not made for return, and is only
slightly bent, SO that it may go hopping
and bounding along the earth like hoop,
and make capacSous holes in the bodies
Of the adversary. These are Of hard,
heavy wood, and ugly things to be hit
withal, but the return boomerang is
simply a plaything, OF 10 be used in
light hunting, and although it might give
a man a painful rap. could not seriously
iniure him. As for the cockatoo story,
il has this much of truth, that n native
boomerang hurler, if he saw a flock fly
ing 10y him in n straight course, could so
cast his weapon as to come upon them
unawares at a given point In their fight.
and. perhaps. knock one down-but his
boomerang would drop, too. having no
power of flight after it has struck any
thing.
WHAT 1T WILL REALLY DO.
The boomerang is sufficiently remark
able without being regarde' ~ ihe light
Of a long bow, and drawn ~ every tour
list in the colonies. 1t /, reld perpen-
dicularly and taken firmly il the hand
by one of its e~xtremities, WI the other
pointed forward, and is hurled with a
full arm and assisted by n run and swing
of the whole body. a slight turn of the
wrist at the moment Of discharge causes
it 20 assume various erratic courses.
Sometimes it will fly straight forward
for 100 or even 200 yards, then rise
sharply to a great height, lose its force,
and hutter down to the feet of the
thrower. Again, It will rise in the air,
swoop down with immense rapidity, and
skim around in a great semi-circle Il few
inches from the ground, rise once more
and return to the spot whence it started.
1t will also start of in a great swoop
to the right, reverse 1t and turn to the
left, skim around the thrower in a series
of ever narrowing circles. and, finding
their center. fall into it like an exhausted
bird. There is something uncanny about
the thing; its movements are 50 mex
pected and out Of reason that it seems to
be alive and to take a savage delight in
StIdIbC bIiOOto siIlo adkoiiCS, WIIiSi msthc
the "new chum" australian equivalent
for ''tenderfoot') dodge every time it
turns lest it should knock him on the
head.
The yarn about the Australian blacks
always throwing the boomerang with
their backs to the object they desire to
hit is a piece Of the same whole cloth"
as the cockatoo fable and the lie about
the missile returning to its owner after
killing the gentleman behind the tree.
An expert thrower can cause his boomer
ang to shoot behind him after a short
preliminary excursion in front, and come
very near n given object; but If he really
wants to hit anything. either in hunting
or war, he doesn't fool away his time
with the return boomerang, but throws
the heavy, nearly straight me-, which
goes direct to the mark without any
hourishes. Such is tho boomerang-a
two-formed u~tensil, with n shape used
for business, the other for sport.-Cor.
Springfield Mass Republican.