SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 231 



The subject here naturally diverges and takes two separate paths. 

 The projectile is loose aud is hurled by a stick or a sling ; or it is at- 

 tached to a string which flies with it. We shall consider these sepa- 

 rately and in the order stated. 



The sling is an unimpressive object when hung up among a thousand 

 other tilings in a collection, aud how many were overlooked by the 

 writer at the Centennial it is not possible to say. The example, Fig. 31, 

 was in the National Museum exhibit in the Government 

 Building, having been obtained from the Navajoes of New 

 Mexico. Slings are rarely used among this people at pres- 

 ent, except by boys. They are, however, mentioned in the 

 old account of the "Journey to the Seven Cities of Cibola." 

 There is no doubt about the antiquity of the device. It 

 is mentioned frequently in the Hebrew writings, and is 

 shown on the Egyptian 4 ' 1 and Assyrian monuments. 49 The 

 Roman sling was named from its funda or purse which con- 

 tained the projectile. Besides its ordinary use for hurling 

 stones, leaden balls (gla ndes) were used ; these were ellipsoid- 

 al plummets, often with inscriptions upon them, as "fir," 

 for Jinn iter, " throw steadily "; Grecian bullets also, marked 

 with the figure of a thunderbolt, or the inscription <5e£aj, 

 "take this," have been found. Schliemanir recovered 

 from the excavations at Ilissarlik sling-bullets of loadstone, copper, 

 alabaster, and diorite. The fustibolus was a four-foot pole, which had a 

 sling attached in the center, enabling both hands to be used in throwing. 



The sling is not so universal a weapon that a statement of the coun- 

 tries where it is used becomes a mere geographical recitation. The 

 Javan sling 51 (bandring) is noticed by Sir Stamford Baffles. The. Fijians, 

 as already stated, excel in its use. The sling of the Sandwich Islanders 52 

 is a double thong with a stone receptacle of plaited sinnet. The stones 

 are egg-shaped and ground for the purpose. Another form of Hawaiian 

 sling lias an oval stone with a circumferential groove, and is hurled by 

 a cord passed around it and secured by a sailor's half-hitch so as to be 

 released when the thong is jerked back to discharge the stone. A simi- 

 lar mode of burling the spear is found in South America. The Marque- 

 sas [slanders 53 use slings of plaited grass, as much as five feet in length, 

 and hurl stones of considerable size. The natives of New Caledonia 54 

 have a sling (wendat) which is a double thong with a purse in the middle 

 made of two parallel cords. The stones are a hard kind of steatite 

 ground to an oval shape and polished. They are carried in a net at the 

 right side and are discharged after a half whirl of the sling. Some of 



Fig. 31. — Navajo 

 sling. — National 

 Museum. 



« Kitto, i, 370. 



" Layard's Nineveh, Pis. vi, vii, ii, 263. Xenophon's Anabasis, lib. iii, c. 3. 



60 Schliemann's " Troy and its Remains," 101. Nos. 66-7-8. 



fil "Java," 4to, PI. iv, opp. p. 290, vol. i ; Fig. 22. 



62 Wood, ii, p. 434. ™Ibi(L, ii, p. 390. M Ibid., ii, p. 205. 



