1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 81 



logy reveal, viz.: that the "Cateia" of the Romans, and the 

 " Ancycle " of the Greeks, was the same; and that "Cateia" 

 and the curved club of Hercules was one and the same thingf. 

 And then there are the pictures of curved weapons in the hands 

 of ancient Egyptians, while actual specimens exist in the Boulah 

 Museum at Cairo, and in the British Museum from Thebes, in 

 the Louvre in Paris, and in the Ethnographical Museum at 

 Copenhagen. And here, right at home, we have specimens of 

 the bent rabbit clubs of the Zunis and the Moquis, in the 

 Smithsonian Institution at Washington. 



And further, Mr. Ferguson asserts that the curved throwing 

 club preceded the sj)ear, and notwithstanding the claim that has 

 been made that the Australian boomerang was derived from some 

 hypothetical high culture, I maintain there is excellent grounds 

 for my fancy that our wild Australian friend's first kangaroo 

 dinner was won with a crooked stick. 



But even this round bent club, though whirling in a wide 

 range when thrown, was not always sure to hit the mark intended ; 

 and as some of the greatest achievements of the white man's 

 genius have been opened to him by accident, so one time the 

 lucky club of our black friend missed its mark, and striking 

 with great force against the sharp edge of a stone, was split 

 along the grain lengthwise into two parts. 



The black fellow, with rueful countenance, picked uj) one of 

 the rent parts, only one half of his trusty, lucky club, smoothed 

 and carved with laborious care from dense and heavj- wood — 

 now ruined — lightened by half and useless. With disappoint- 

 ment and vexation he flung it far from him. How it sped away! 

 It swiftly mounted on the air like a bird, and poised and wheeled 

 in circling flight. When, lo! the returning boomerang had 

 sprung into existence ! The luck of his old club had turned to 

 magic. It was as if he had seen, while gazing into a swift run- 

 ning stream, the gliding of its waters suddenly cease, and 

 before his very eyes turn and flow merely back again, instead of 

 going "on forever." 



So much for fancy. Now for fact. It is a very significant 

 fact, that in their round, or unsplit state, the curved throwing 

 club does not possess to any noticeable degree, the quality of 

 returning flight. 



Here are two small model boomerangs, rounded on both sides. 

 A light throw, thus, and it goes onward, but shows no disposi- 

 tion to return. 



In this shape they are used as weapons of war or in the chase. 



Trausactions N. Y. Acad. Sci. Vol. XII. March 25, I8i>3. 



