Mr. Ferguson on the Antiquity of the Kiliee or Boomerang. 45 



thong, and the expression of Servius, " teli genus quod per flagellum in immen- 

 sum jaci potest," proves that this was not used in the retraction of the weapon, 

 but must either have left the hand of the thrower along with the Aclys, or have 

 been used as a sling, from which it may have been let slip, when it had acquired 

 sufficient velocity. A horseman is represented on one of the British coins given 

 by Ruding, (PI. II. fig. 9,) who appears to be whirling an instrument of this 

 sort round his head by a similar appendage. The same collection, also, affords 

 a curious illustration of the use of the cruciform missiles already alluded to, 

 (PI. II. figs. 7, 8.) Here the ancient Briton is represented throwing his 

 criosach from a sling, such as we may suppose CuchuUin, and the other heroes 

 of Irish romance, to have done. The sling appears to be attached ; but from the 

 application of the epithet "eyed," or perforated, to the weapons of the Irish 

 poems, there is reason to suppose that the artist intended to represent the missile 

 here as on the point of slipping from the extremity of the thong. 



Another apparatus used in hurling the Clava, if we are to credit the testi- 

 monies of northern mythology, was a haft or manubrium. It was by means of 

 a haft of this sort Thor threw the miolner ; and the efficacy of the apparatus is 

 attested by various mythi, one of which, preserved by Saxo Grammaticus, gives 

 the following characteristic account of a battle between Balder and Hother, in 

 which a band of the Scandinavian deities took part with the former. " Then 

 might be seen a battle waged by human against divine belligerants ; for Hother, 

 grit in his impenetrable mail, fearlessly assailed the thickest battalia of the gods, 

 doing all that mortal man might against immortals. But Thor, upon the other 

 hand, with such whirls of his club as had not been experienced till then, (inusitato 

 clavcB libratu,) swept through every obstacle presented against him. There was 

 no armour which did not yield before his strokes ; no warrior who could sustain 

 them, and live. Down went all he touched, the hurled oak bursting through 

 helmet and shield. Bulk of body, and stoutness of heart, alike availed not. 

 Then, indeed, the victory had fallen to the gods, had not Hother, perceiving the 

 day to go against him, run, and rendered the club useless by cutting off its haft, 

 (clavam prceciso manubrio inutilem reddidisset,) deprived of which weapon, 

 the gods betook themselves to sudden flight," &c. — (Sax. Gram. Hist. Dan. 

 I. xvi.) 



Now, it is stated in the Edda, that among the most precious things possessed 



