Mr. Ferguson on the Antiquity of the Kiliee or Boomerang. 39 



motion, will descend nearly in that plain at which its projectile force leaves it, 

 and will, therefore, if projected upward, exhibit a reverse flight, yet the peculiar 

 ascending flight of the Boomerang is found only to belong to varieties of the 

 curved or angular instrument. To the property first alluded to, Plutarch appears 

 to refer, in a remarkable passage in his inquiry, " Why the Pythian ceased to 

 deliver her oracles in verse," a passage which would lead to the supposition that 

 he had himself witnessed the flight of some such missile. "For, " he says, "as 

 the whirling of bodies that fall circularly downwards is nothing violent, but when 

 upwards, forced by a preternatural circumgyration and whirlwind violence, two 

 curling impetuosities become incumbered in one irregular circumrotation ; so 

 that divine rapture which is called enthusiasm," &c. — (Phillips'' s Translation.) 



Here, again, as in the classic tradition, the evidences are accompanied by 

 such marks of uncertainty, as imply a source in the most remote antiquity. 

 Thus, while the form alone of the crosses of the Irish romances has been noticed, 

 the peculiar flight, which ought to have been attributed to them at the same 

 time, is transferred to a fabulous javelin like that of Cephalus, called the plac 

 lugaid, or spear of Lewy, which is the subject of other and separate legends. 



Thus, also, in Scandinavian history, the property of the hammer of Thor 

 must have been considered fabulous in the time of Saxo, who regards the similar 

 flight of a javelin as something preternatural. In describing a battle between 

 Hacquin and King Harold Blaatand, he gives the following account. " A won- 

 drous prodigy suddenly befel in the fleet of Hacquin ; a javelin was observed to 

 fly overhead, with so irregular and wandering a course, as to fill the minds of 

 the beholders with no less awe than astonishment : for, carried hither and thither, 

 with uncertain doublings, (in diversas partes dubiis reflexibus agitatum,) it 

 appeared to be exploring a place for inflicting its wound. Which miraculous 

 sight, while all were gazing at in horror and suspense, uncertain what a circum- 

 stance so extraordinary might portend, descending suddenly, it transferred the 

 common danger to the sole head of Hacquin. Some think it was Gunnilda, the 

 mother of Harold, who had procured the javelin by witchcraft, and thus took 

 vengeance on the conquerer of her son," — (Sax. Gram. 1. x.) 



