318 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vou55. 



to see what the older writers on Mexico have to say about the sling. 

 Bernal Diaz del Castillo describes a battle between the Spaniards 

 and the Mexicans in these words : 



Thus as we approached with our army they shot from above so many stones, 

 javelins, and arrows that they covered the ground. * * * They had slings 

 and plenty of stones, and they shot arrows and stones so fast that they wounded 

 five of our soldiers and two horsemen. * * * * 



Bancroft says that the material from which the Aztec slings were 

 made was pita thread or other fiber, and that the stones, which were 

 carried in a pouch suspended from the waist, were hurled with much 

 force and accuracy.^ In Yucatan also the sling was in use. They 

 were made of henequen, and stones were the missiles.^ 



As we possess only the most meager information as to the weapons 

 used in the region between Yucatan and southern Panama, it is im- 

 possible to be certain to what extent the sling was used there. They 

 were employed in the district of Tabasco and in other parts of 

 northern Guatemala, but they do not seem to have been the most 

 important of the long-range weapons of the region.* Indeed, many 

 of the tribes in Central America seem to have used either the bow and 

 arrow or the blowgun with poisoned darts to a much greater extent 

 than they did the sling. Among the Coiba or Cueva of eastern 

 Panama, however, the sling again assumes an important place in 

 the list of weapons,^ The bow and arrow were lacking in that region 

 which centers about the Gulf of Uraba (or Darien). 



Beginning with the territory around Antioquia on the Cauca River, 

 in northwestern Colombia, we begin to get more evidence of the use 

 of slings. Of the arms used in that district Cieza de Leon says : 



* * * The inhabitants of these valleys are brave amongst themselves and 

 much feared by their neighbors. The men go naked and barefooted, and merely 

 wear a narrow band fastened to a girdle round the waist. Their arms are darts, 

 long lances of black palm, slings, and two-handled clubs, called Macanas. * * * ' 



In short, slings were very important in this part of South America, 

 their only rival among long-range arms being the bow.'' This, how- 

 ever, seems to mark the southern limit of the sling as used in Central 

 America rather than the northern limit of the sling as used in South 

 America, for that weapon seems to have been unknown in Ecuador 

 previous to the Inca conquest, which began about 1490, and which 

 had the result of pushing the Peruvian culture northwards rather 

 than that of changing the fundamental character of the pre-Inca 

 culture of Quitu (Quito) and its dependgncies.^ Inca dominance 



*Diaz del Castillo, Maudslay's translation, Hakluyt Society, 1908-1916, vol. 4, pp. 

 305-306. 



2 Bancroft, 1883, vol. 2, p. 409. 



» Idem, vol. 2, p. 743. Ancona, 1889, vol. 1, p. 161. 



* Idem, vol. 1, pp. 655 and 696. 



•Idem, vol. 1, p. 761. Joyce, 1916, pp. 97-98. 



•Cieza de Le6n, Markham's translation, Ilakluyt Society, 1864, p. 49. 

 T Simon, 1882-1892, vol. 1, p. 113. Uribe Angel, 1885, p. 513. 

 «Gonzftles Suftrez, 1890, vol. 1, p. 91. Cevallos, 1870-1873, vol. 1, p. 27. 



