THE SPEAR AND REEL. 



501 



purposes, and was furnished, as Diodorus observes, with a 

 rope for letting out the wounded animal, in the same man- 

 ner as practiced hy the modern Ethiopians;* there was 



sometimes another line fastened to the shaft, and passing 

 over a notch at its upper end, which was probably intended 

 to give the weapon a great impetus, as well 

 as to retain the shaft when it left the 

 blade. The rope attached to the blade was 

 wound upon a reel, generally carried by 

 some of the attendants. It was of very 

 simple construction, consisting of a half 

 ring of metal, by which it was held, and a 

 \bar turning on it, on which the line or 

 string was wound." 



Again : " This weapon," alluding to the harpoon, '' con- 

 sisted of a broad, flat blade, furnished with a deep tooth or 



* Sir Gardner Wilkinson informs us further tliat the inhabitants at 

 Sennaar still follow up the practice of their ancestors, and, like them, 

 prefer chasing it in the riyer to an open attack on shore. 



