44 Mr. FERausoN on the Antiquity of the Kiliee or Boomerang. 



IX._OF THE TRANSIT OF THE NAMES OF THE CURVED MISSILE TO THE 



STRAIGHT WEAPON. 



It has been seen that the Aclys and Ancyle, two varieties of the curved 

 weapon, were thrown by means of an amentum or attached thong ; and that the 

 Clava, also, was thrown in this manner, appears from various representations both 

 of the straight and crooked club having such an appendage, (PL II. fig. 11.) 

 Now this, also, was the mode in which several varieties of the spear were thrown 

 among the ancients, and in which a species of it is still thrown among the 

 Australian savages. — (Cooke's Voyages towards the South Pole.) The word 

 lancea itself has been derived by Isidore from this peculiarity, and ey^os quasi 

 Xay^os is a received etymology for the Greek weapon. The tragula appears 

 to be so thrown in Caesar, {De Bell. Gall. 1, v. cxlvi.) ; and the frequent allusions 

 of other classic writers shew that the amentum was an usual appendage to the 

 spear in general. Hence there would appear a probability, that the common 

 name may have passed from one weapon to the other, through the medium of 

 the common apparatus by which both were thrown ; a probability which is con- 

 siderably increased by the fact, that the amentum itself among the Greeks was 

 also called ayKvXr], whence their ixeaayKvXov, or spear thrown by the ancyle 

 attached to its middle. Whether this have anything to do with the vinculum 

 of the Latins ; and whether aclys may, in like manner, have given name to the 

 Belgic schacckel, our shackle ; cateia to the Belgic catte, a chain ; and caia to 

 our guy, or attached rope, I leave to the consideration of the curious. 



X.— OF THE MODES OF THROWING THE CATEIA, Etc., AMONG THE 



ANCIENTS. 



Whatever uncertainty may attend this portion of the inquiry, it is certain 

 that the curved weapons under consideration were thrown by divers apparatus ; 

 and a consideration of what can be collected respecting these may, perhaps, fur- 

 nish some practical hints towards devising similar appendages to the weapon 

 as we have it at present. 



The passages always quoted shew that the Aclys was thrown by means of a 



