File:The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world; being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristics. By (14742969106).jpg

Identifier: uncivilizedraces01wood (find matches)
Title: The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world; being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristics. By Rev. J. G. Wood... With new designs by Angas, Danby, Wolf, Zwecker... 1871
Year: 1877 (1870s)
Authors: Wood, John George, 1827-1889
Subjects: Ethnology. Manners and customs. Savages
Publisher: J. B. Burr and company
Contributing Library: Brigham Young University-Idaho, David O. McKay Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University-Idaho

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the remains ofthe red paint are visible in almost everygroove. So delicate is the operation of boomerangmaking, that sonie men, natives though theybe, cannot tin-n out a really good weapon,while others are celebrated for their skill,and can dis):)Ose of their weapons as fast asthey make them. One of the native kings was a well-known boomerang maker, and hisweapons were widely distributed among thenatives, who knew his handiwork as an artistknows the touch of a celebrated painter. Tothis skill, and the comparative wealth whichits exercise brought him, the king in ques-tion owed the principal part of his author-ity. A fair idea of the size and weight of theboomerang may be gained by the measure-ments of the weapon which has just beenmentioned. It is two feet nine inches longwhen measured with the curve, and two feetsix inches from tip to tip. It is exactly twoinches in width, only narrowing at the tips,and its weight is exactly eleven ounces.This, by the way, is a war boomerang, and is
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(2.) CATCHING THE CORMORANT. (See page 738.) (739) AUSTRALIAN SHIELDS. 741 shaped like that which is shown in Boome-rangs on page 731, fig. 3. Another speci-men, which is of about the same weight, isshaped like that of fig. 8. It measures twofeet five inches along the curve, two feetone inch from tip to tip, and is three inchesin width in the middle, diminishing gradu-ally toward the tips. In order to enable them to ward off thesevarious missiles, the natives are armed witha shield, which varies exceedingly in shapeand dimensions, and, indeed, in some placesis so unlike a shield, and apparently so in-adequate to the office of protecting the body,that when strangers come to visit my collec-tion I often have much difficulty in persuad-ing them that such strange-looking objectscan by any possibility be shields. As thereis so great a variety in the shields, I havecollected together a number of examples,which, I believe, comprise every form ofshield used throughout Australia. Two ofthem ar

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