32 Mr. Ferguson on the Antiquity of the Kiliee or Boomerang. 



a curious illustration of the TaSepa, ra irepK^paynara of Hesychius, as well as 

 of the other testimonies adduced by Bochart to shew that this word literally 

 means a fenced enclosure. — (^Bochart. in Georg. Sac.) It is worthy of observa- 

 tion, that the kraals of savage nations still retain this primitive form, which we 

 see thus indicated in almost all the names used by European nations to signify 

 a collection of habitations. These will be sufficient for the present to establish 

 the necessary meaning of Cateia. 



If the conjecture as to the etymological relation between the words Aclys 

 and Ancyle be correct, it will only be necessary to investigate the radical mean- 

 ing of the latter; and here we are introduced among a numerous family of 

 words in which the idea of curvature is uniformly inherent : ayKcov, ayKvXrj, 

 ayKvpa ; unguis, unguis, ancus, uncus, angulus, ango, angor, anxius, angle, 

 ankle, hang, hank, hanker, (synonymous with the hake of Lincolnshire, Skin- 

 ner,) hunkers, haunch, (the Italian and Spanish aiica, synonymous with hough 

 or hock,) hunch, hunch-hacked, (the Belgic huckschoulderen, from the Belgic 

 and Teutonic hucken, to bend down,) in which last the connexion above con- 

 tended for is strikingly manifested. These examples might be swelled to a 

 great extent, but it is conceived that enough has been done to determine the 

 essential meaning oi Ancyle, and to shew a high degree of probability that a like 

 signification is also involved in Aclys ; so that as Ancyle appears to be nearly 

 identical with the Sicilian zancle, a reaping-hook, Aclys may, in like manner, 

 be the representative of our own sickle. 



With regard to the passage from Isidore, which states that the Gauls and 

 Spaniards of his time called the Cateise Teutones, as indicating the Teutonic 

 origin of the weapon, it is to be observed, that the proper name of the Teutonic 

 people is Tuitschen, or Duytschen, and that the word Teutones of the Latins 

 was only a softened representation of that sound. Now Grial, commenting on 

 this passage of Isidore, states that the Spaniards of his time continued to use 

 certain instruments, which he conjectures to be the same. These he does not 

 farther describe than by observing, that the name they then went by was 

 Chochones ; but Chochono in the Basque language is equivalent to the Castilian 

 Concavo, {Dictionar. Triling. ad verb.) ; and hence it appears very probable, 

 that the name Teutones was imposed on these weapons, not as indicative of their 

 origin, but as descriptive of their shape. 



