this weapon was called
the return-boomerang.

"The man repeated several times the performance with the weapon,
bringing it close to his feet on every occasion. Then a coin was placed
in the end of a split stick forty or fifty yards distant, at the
suggestion of the performer, who stipulated that he would knock the coin
out without disturbing the stick, on condition that he should have the
coin, a one-shilling piece, in case he succeeded.

"He balanced the boomerang with great care and then threw it. It made
several gyrations in the air, and when it reached its destination it
knocked the coin from its place as neatly as one could have removed it
with his fingers. All who stood by applauded the performer, and he was
given the opportunity to win several more shillings in the same way.

"I ought to mention that each time when he threw the boomerang he varied
his manner of throwing it. Sometimes he sent the weapon straight into
the air; next he skimmed it along the ground, and next he launched at an
angle of from forty to sixty degrees. Every time he threw it, it came
back to his feet, but when he threw it at the coins in the stick it did
not return.

"The interpreter explained to us that the return-boomerang was more of a
toy than a weapon, as the regular boomerang cannot return when it has
hit something in its course. Wonderful stories have been told of the use
of this weapon in war,--how the black fellow will launch it two or three
hundred yards, and have it kill one or more of his enemies, and then
come back to his feet. A moment's thought will convince any one that the
two things together are impossible. In order to return to the place
whence it started, the boomerang must not encounter or even touch
anything in its way. When it is used for killing men, or wild animals,
it does not come back to the ground of its thrower.

"From all accounts that I am able to obtain, the boomerang as a weapon
in the hands of a good thrower is very dangerous. It can be made to hit
a man concealed behind a tree, rock, or house, where a gun or a spear
could not possibly reach him. As a hunting weapon it is of great
utility, and many a kangaroo has fallen before it. The skillful thrower,
within reaching distance of a kangaroo or an emu, is as sure of his prey
as a white man would be with a Winchester rifle."

Ned and Harry tried to learn from the performer when and by whom the
boomerang was invented, and all they could get from him was