The national forum., 1910-07-30
WILD MEMS WEAPONS


Among the weapons which the wit
of primitive man devised to aid him
in the struggle for existence with ami
mails far more formidably endowed
by nature than himself, the way in
which some were suggested to him
by the objects which he saw around
him is obvious enough, but of others
we are amazed by his ingenuity in
their design and his skill in their use
The most striking instance of both
this skill in use and cleverness in de-
sign is perhaps the boomerang. The
perfection of balance, curve, and
weight in all its parts is so exact that
modern dynamics have been quite I'M
able to find formula according to
which workable boomerang can be
turned out by q carpenter, and the
Skill needed for the use of even the
most perfect weapon is such that the
untutored efforts of the most stall
wart thrower of cricket-ball are RI
diculouSly futile when he begins to
make trial of it. 1t is scarcely too
much to say that, in spite Of years of
practice, no white man has ever sue
ceeded in becoming effective with it.
We are told that there is in Australia
tree whose seed pod is so formed
that when detached by the process of
natural growth from the branch it
whirls through the air with curve
analogous to that of the boomerang
we see faint suggestion of sim
liar movement in the gyrations of the
seed-pods of our own ashland it has
been conjectured that the observant
"black fellow may have received
from this the first hint of the weapon
which he eventually fashioned into
the wonderful boomerang. 1t is q con-
lecture which will ever remain con-
jectural. Others of mans early
weapons-the club, the spear, the
hatchet Originally, we may suppose,
stone cleft by accident to cutting
edge) are easy to understand. Ma
ture gave them almost ready-made
into his hand. The almost universal
use of the bow, a weapon of much
more elaboration, does not suggest
puzzle nearly so bathing as the boom
erang. The force of elasticity in the
sapling would be apt almost literally
to Jump to the eyes" of the savage
as he made his way through the bush,
and his friend in front released
bough from it's tension to fly back
and whip him across the face. To
cut such sapling, to fasten to either
end of it sinew or stretch of a
touch creeping plant, to fit an arrow
on the string, and discharge it by the
relaxed tension of the released string,
are, no doubt, series of operations
demanding much ingenuity, and prob
ably much time, for their develop
ment; but we can imagine the steps.
We are not left wondering. Even
the throwing-s -stick--that very effec-
tive application Of the principle of the
lever by which the wild man added so
very greatly to the force and distance
of his throw of his missile spear
may be supposed to have been dis
covered by accidental means which
we can reconstruct. The boomerang
still remains the biggest puzzle.
There is another adaptation of a
very simple instrument which we do
not know to have such antiquity as
some of these, yet must always seem
very marvellous when we first witness
the variety of uses and the perfection
to which it has been brought--the
use of bit OF rope which we call
lassoing. The value of the moose we
can easily imagine to have been
brought very early to the notice of
man in his more or less natural state.
through forest thickly hung with
lianas must soon have struck him as
one of the inconveniences of his eX-
istence, but we do not seem to find
record at a very early stage of any
practical use to which he might have
put the hint so given him. The
greatest wonder in the history OF the
moose (second only to the marvellous
skill exhibited by the experts in its
use) is that certain nations should
have acquired the skill that they did
acquire in 1t with so few generations
of practice. We may probably take
it for granted that the American Red
Indian did not begin to use it until
after the Spaniards had made their
way to America. The origin Of the
word is Latin, "laqueus;" there is
Portuguese "laco;" we 'lasso" or
lace" our boots every morning
presuming that we do not spend the
day in slipers. But, apart from that.
it is not easy to see that the lasso
could have had value without the
horse. tt is the instrument of riders
on horseback. There were no horses
in America, according to all who
claim to speak with authority, until
the Spaniards arrived there. The ap-
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