Mr. Ferguson on the Antiquity of the Kiliee or Boomerang. 35 



Sextus Pompeius, " Clava, teli genus qua Hercules utebatur ;" for although, by 

 a poetic license, Virgil has applied telum to a sword, yet the exactness necessary 

 to a lexicographer like Festus precludes any uncertainty that might arise from 

 his supposed adoption of this precedent. That his opinions, and those of Isidore, 

 were recognized down to the tenth century, appears from the Anglo-Saxon 

 Glossary of -^Ifric, " Clava, vel Cateia, vel Teutona, annej- cinnej- jej-ceoc," i. e. 

 " the Clava, Cateia, or Teutona, are missiles of one sort ; — {JElfric. Glossar. ad 

 calcem Dictionar. Somneri ;) — there are, therefore, sufficient grounds to justify 

 some further inquiry into the truth of this assertion, although at first sight it 

 may, perhaps, have appeared too startling for serious consideration. 



That the idea of curvature is Involved in the word Clava, as well as in those 

 hitherto investigated, may be inferred from the application of numerous words 

 of the same family. Thus Clava itself is used synonymously with unguis, to 

 signify the twisted tendril of a vine ; claw, our English for a hooked talon, is 

 equivalent to unguis in another sense ; and clavus, a crooked holdfast, or clamp, 

 is another equivalent of unguis, as is Indicated by our use of the synonymous 

 nail. Thus cluif, in the Lowland Scottish dialect, is synonymous with ungula ; 

 and the word clams is still used in the same idiom for crooked forceps. Thus, 

 also, glomus, our clew, or round ball of thread ; glomero, to gather in a circle ; 

 clavicula, the crooked key-bone of the shoulder, &c. Another confirmation may 

 be drawn from the application of the Latin clavis, to signify a key ; for, that the 

 key was originally a crooked instrument appears clearly from all that can be 

 collected from the works of the ancients concerning it; ( Salmasius in Exercitat. 

 Plinian.) ; and the very word key, by which this instrument is now known to 

 us, is still the identical word used to express a club by the Sclavonic nations, 

 {Cluverius in Germ. Antiq. p. 304,) and is very probably the same caia to 

 which Isidore alludes in that description identifying the Clava and Cateia. 

 Hence this conclusion seems quite legitimate, that the original form of the 

 Clava, or artificial club, was like that of the clavus, or original holdfast ; or like 

 that of the clavis, or original key. 



Hence the report of Servius concerning the Aclys, " Quod sit clava, cubito 

 semis facta ;" and the statement of Johannes de Janua, " Cateia — hasta qua ute- 

 batur Hercules," appear by no means inconsistent with probability. 



On these grounds, it may be expected that the club of Hercules will be 



e2 



