-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 thing. 
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 spear, 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 up one of 
the rent parts, only one half of his trusty, lucky club, smoothed 
and carved with laborious care from dense and heavy 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 asif 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, 1893. 
