The Portland daily press., 1894-04-11
MAGIC OF THE BOOMERANG.
Four Bushmen from the Circus Aston
ish New Workers.
Travellers Tales About the wizardry
Worked with Bent Sticks Proved on Man.
haitian Field to be True. S.

Travellers Tales About the wizardry
Worked with Bent Sticks Proved on Man.
haitian Field to be True. S.+e
IN Sum-
How bit of curved wood thrown
from the hand can be made to circle,
hover. rise, swoop, and even bound from
the gound where it strikes one hundred
feet into the air is thing which sclen-
tIdc men have been unable to explain
except in the most general and indefinite
way. Yet the bushmen of Australia, a
people of very low intelligence make
their boomerangs do all these things,
and many more so wonderful that they
must be seen to be appreciated
About $50 people saw these things done
yesterday on Manhattan Field, where
four bushmen from the extreme north
of Queensland, who form part of Bar
mum & Bailey's circus, gave an exhibit
tion of boomerang throwing. The savag-
es are short, sturdy looking men, and
three of them possess bushy black
whiskers. The fourth, young boy, is
called Tom, which isn't his name. The
applications of the others will probably
never appear in print. One of them re-
joices in cognomen of which you may
gain some notion by COMPRISING your
nostrils tightly with your fingers and
endeavoring to pronounce the word
"iconoclast" deep in your throat. To
get at the name of the other repeat the
process backward. The bushmen ap-
peared on the field carrying half dozen
boomerangs.. apiece which they them
selves had made. The implements were
of hard wood, slightly curved, about
three feet long, and painted pink. A
careful examination of the surface of one
of them showed that it was planed OF
ground into series of very gentle un-
dulations. 1t was somewhat pointed at
each end, and weighed about three
onces After Frank Frost, the man who
brought the bushmen to this country
had explained that they were out of
practice, not having thrown their
boomerangs for some months, and that
the spectators would do well to keep at
Il T6SUCCblul uiStdnSO ou hLHOs q Wal hAbS
which was carefully needed. one of the
savages selected a stick, waved it back
and forth gently, and then threw it with
an effortless swing toward the north.
The stick went perhaps thirty yards
straight ahead, then turned back in a
graceful curve to the bushman's feet.
Another man followed with longer
thow. Then one of the wonderful sticks
went flying far into the air, turning
and twisting, diving forward and COM
ing down in d spiral course like
wounded pigeon.
"Give us ground throw, Tom," Frost
called to the youngest OF the men.
Tom selected BOOMERANG, took
short run forward, and with the impetus
of the run and force to which he gave
the strength of his arm, back and leg
muscles, hurled it forward parallel to
the ground at height of a yard. For
twenty-fiv yards it sped on. with an
understandable whirring and histling;
when it struck the ground, and a gasp
of surprise went up from the spectators,
for instead of stopping there it rose into
the air and went whirring up higher,
higher, far up above the tops of the big
grand stands. AS hawk hoyers over
It's prey the inanimate wood lowered;
then it started down in a wide curve to
the ground.
Tom tried again. This time the wea-
pom struck the ground, jumped as if it
were clearing an obstruction, struck
again and forthwith set out for cloud
land Suddenly it changed it's mind,
went sloping off at an angle. and pres
emily f1utteI ed to the place where it had
started, stopping to hover at height
of few feet, as if to pick out soft
spot for alighting. 1t was like magic.
In the middle of the exhibition pigeon
l.
tarried to watch the strange birds that
few in circles and returned to the place
whencesthey started.
Try one at the pigeon" called one of
the spectators to Dillaroo.
The bushman nodded and hurled mis-
boomerang, not at the bird, but at the
speaker. 1t rose over the heads OF the
the pigeon then made bee line upward
for that astonished bird. The pigeon
did not wait to meet the strange bird.
1t started southwark, and if the manner
of it's departure may be taken as An in
dication, it is probably flying yet. The
spectators had walked out on the field,
and presently boomerang fell at the
feet of Tody Hamilton, Barnum q
Bailey's press agent.
The exhibition ended with remarka-
BILE throw by Dillaroo. He hurled his
boomerang directly west. 1t travelled
for 200 feet, rose, returned, lowered.
swooped in an opposite direction to the
south, doubled on itself, swooped down
and to the east. then rose, and finally
descended on the eastern covered grand
stand, chipping piece of it out and
smashing itself 1t must have travelled
300 yards. After the throwing was over
native woman named Tigara Joined
the savages. and they danced to an
accompaniment of chanting and boomer
angs clicked in time, a dance called
corroboree.
Then they handed around their boom
erangs for examination, and retired
from the field. Several spectators, went
tofar corner of the field and tried TO throw
the weapons with meag1e success. Mr..
Frost says that some principle, not I'M
destood, underlies the phenomenon of
boomerang fight. II it could be found
| - = .-.o,1ld hi Ir odunnca 1nnateri.