The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1893-01-28
LOGAN.

Is incapable of inhicting serious injury
if made when in full fight to strike
an opposing body, but that the Aus
tralian blacks habitually employ it a!
an C1Gctige means of ofTense do not be
ljeye
For several years lived in the busl
and on the gold fields of that country
During that time l came into almost
daily contact with members of various
tribes, and in no one instance did
aver see the boomerang used otherwise
than as plaything. It's form, ma.
terial, light weight and bluntness unfit
it, think, for deadly execution, and,
however skillfully manipulated, it is
next to impossible for its thrower to
hit with it an aimed at even motion.
less object much less an active human
enemy or a moving beast or bird.
Possibly some of the far interior
blacks may use more heavily-con-
structed boomerang in war and for the
chase, but | have seen good deal OF
the belligerent tribes of the Murray
river and its tributaries, the Darling
and Murrumbidgee, and never noticed
any of them carrying other than the
light weapon.
1t is only fair to add, however, that
almost everywhere, among the early
white settlers-shepherds and the like
Il was met by more or less startling
stories of the fearful execution wrought
by the boomerang in battle, but the
narrator had always heard the story
from some one else.
profess to give only what my own
eyes have seen. do not pretend that
my few years wanderings in Australia
have given me an extensive knowledge
OF that vast island continent and its
original inhabitants.
The blackfellow, with infinite toll
aud patience and by the aid of fire and
such rude cutting tools as he possesses,
makes his pomerG, or bylee, out of any
suitable hard wood, usually from a
naturally bent limb of the karraway,
she-oak or box tree; and sometimes,
perhaps, from the body of an ironbark
sapling, if crooked one can be found.
When finished, the missile is any
where from two to three feet long, is
approximately parabolic in form, has
d width of two and one-quarter to three
inches and thickness of about five
eights of an inch. It's ends are rounded;
its concave face worked fiat and its
convex side is brought to dull edge.
In hurting it the black grasps it firmly
by one end, convex side outward and
hat side up and then, with a quick mo-
tion, as if bent on striking an object
some way in advance, projects it vio-
lently forward, at the same instant
Il Wi Ia Io 10
ment flies through the air with a rotary
motion, ascends to some height turns
about, and finally falls to the ground
behind, in front Of or at one side of the
.thrower.
L never saw two boomerangs pre-
~cisely alike, nor one which presented a
Sroe curve. All are more or less
irregular in shape, as the maker, for
the sake of retaining strength, follows
the grain of the wood, and it is difficult
To find two pieces of material with ex-
actly the same natural bend.
But however much individual speci-
mems may differ in form, all boomer
anGs, if properly thrown, will go
through the singular gyrations above
described. To the black fellows they
amusement, ard white visitors fire.
quently offer small prizes to be COM
Jcted for-the wfaner being that one
Cf the contestants who shall, on it's
return flight, cause the weapon to hit
or most nearly hit given point.
in the month of december, 1852, a
number of us, all ships ates, who had
come out in the sailing ship Revenue,
Capt. Seth Crowell, which left the port
af New York July Sd of that year,
were encamped on the river Lodden, in
the colony of Victoria. Among us
there was fine, handsome fellow of
tyenty-siX, a lawyer by profession,
uamed Richard O'Brien. liz hailed
Erom Brooklyn, L. l., had been only
two years married and had lSft his
young wife in the city of churches
while he came to seek his fortuns on
ene Australian gold fields.
Dick, as we called him, was subject
ed to good deal of pleasant banter
aild, probably, some secret envy, be,
cause he always wore on the little fin
ger of his right hand a heavy, plain
gold ring, his wife's parting gift. On
the inside of the hoop of this ring was
engraved loving woman's prayer in
fhe simple words: God keep my hus-
band" and l verify believe that not all
the wealth of the mines would have
2empted Dick to part with it.
The word was not then in use, else
O'Brien would undoubtedly have said
that the precious trinket was his mas
cot, for, so far, mis- luck had been ex-
.ceptionally good
A dozen times day, when he
thought himself unobserved, he would
+aIze off the ring, look yearningly at
the inscription and then fall to work
again with increased energy, as if to
hssten the. day of his return to its fair
sioaor.
We were all young men under twen-
ty-eight, and, however we might af-
fecl TO laugh at their display, we fully
with Dicks feelings, for
every one of us was beginning 10 suf. |
der from that terrible home sickness,
the worst form of which is, perhaps,
endured only by those who, az we then
were, are separated from Aindred and
eOnntry by thousands ef miles of track
Less oceaA.
One moruing--it was Sunday, and we
-fere not workings swarm of black !