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



all the chief characteristics of the Boomerang belong to this weapon also ; whence 

 it is concluded, that the Aclys was a weapon which differed from the Cateia only 

 in dimensions. 



Ill— OF THE ANCYLE. 



The etymology of the word Aclys points, in the third place, to another name 

 by which a similar weapon seems to have been known to the Greeks. " Ego 

 jacula crediderim, (says Turnebus, in his commentary on the 'duas Aclydes' of 

 Trebellius, Adversar. lib. xxx. c. xi.), an sata, an amenta. Ay/cuAat autem 

 Graeciae jacula quaedara sunt ; et per diminutionem inde AyKvXiSes — inde 

 Aclydes." And this etymology is generally adopted by subsequent commenta- 

 tors. There exists, indeed, a remarkable connexion between the sounds ak and 

 ank, which strongly supports the conjecture of Turnebus. Thus, as Vossius 

 observes, from KLKiwo^y cincinnus ; from Xei\(o, lingo ; from cx'^j anguis. In 

 like manner ank, in the present of some verbs, assumes the form ak in the pre- 

 terite, as stringo, «^rm ; ^ngo, Jixi ; £rango, Jregi ; x'mco, vici ; i^ango, pcBxi, 

 pegi, pepigi ; pactum, &c., (old praeterite.) Thus, also, the ayKvpa of the 

 Greeks, and anchora of the Latins, is found in the form akkeri in the Islandic, 

 and akkjeri in the dialect of the Feroe islands. — (Antiq. Americ. ante- Columb., 

 p. 328.) So also in topographical nomenclature, the Sangar river, called by the 

 barbarians Sagaris ; the Ogygian gates, stated by Hesychius to be called the 

 Oncaian gates by the Athenians, &c. Numerous similar instances may be had 

 in the modem languages of Europe, as against, in the Anglo-Saxon onjean, 

 {Skinner, Etymol. Mag. Ling. Ang.) ; aguillon, the French needle, in the Teu- 

 tonic, angel, (do.) ; ache, a pain, from the Anglo-Saxon anje, vexatus, (do.), &c. 



Now the KyKvkrj of the Greeks, though commonly used synonymously with 

 the Latin Amentum, meaning the thong or attached sling by which various sorts 

 of missiles were discharged, has an independent signification as a distinct species 

 of missile, as in that passage of the Orestes of Euripides, where certain Phry- 

 gians, speaking of their weapons, are made to say : 



'O fif.v irtrpovc 6 Ss ayKvXag, 



'O Se %i(pOQ irpoKWTTOv ev x^potv ex^v. 



JEurip. Orest. v. 1438. 



