Mr. Ferguson on the Antiquity of the Kiliee or Boomerang. 43 



Hence the inference seems unavoidable, that, as the same names, and names 

 radically connected, are found applied to those two distinct classes of weapons, 

 and as these names are all radically and properly descriptive of the one class, but 

 not at all descriptive of the other, that family of crooked missiles, the charac- 

 teristic names of which are thus applied to the family of straight projectiles, must 

 necessarily have been the older of the two, and the other must have originated 

 from it. In other words, we must conclude that, as the club appears to have been 

 the parent of the Boomerang, so does the Boomerang appear to have been the 

 parent of the spear. 



This conclusion, startling as it is, receives further confirmation from the fact, 

 that the invention of the spear has been attributed to the Etruscans, who, although 

 a very ancient people, were never looked on as the aborigines of their country ; 

 and it is very remarkable, that the name coris, which they are stated by Festus to 

 have given to the weapon, (the quiris of the Sabines,) is so evidently associated 

 with the idea of curvature, that the Quirites, Curetes, and Coryhantes, have 

 been argued to be the same, on the common affinity of these titles with the x^poy, 

 or circular dance of the priests of Mars. — (Pezron, Antiq. of Nations, c. iii.) 

 Again, this coris of the Etruscans is one of the few words of their dialect which 

 correspond with any part of a known language, being clearly identical with the 

 Irish corr, still signifying a straight spear, and hitherto offering an unaccountable 

 anomaly, as being the only one of a very numerous family which is not palpably 

 applied to something curved or circular. For example, the Ordnance Survey of 

 Derry contains a list, from O'Brien's Dictionary and Cormac's Glossary, of 

 upwards of thirty words having cor for their radix, every one of which involves 

 this peculiar meaning. A few of the most striking are subjoined. 



" Cor, a twist, a round or circular motion, a round hill ; Latin, curvus. 



Cor, a choir ; Latin, chorus ; chorea, the circular dance. 



Cor, a round pit of water. 



Coire, a c.auldron, a whirlpool. 



Caor, a berry. 

 - Cuar, crooked. 



Corran, a reaping hook," &c. &c. 



Ordnance Survey of Londonderry, p. 212-13. 



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