The Boomerang . 
238 
who facilitated his researches in a way which no other person could have 
done, and whose communications of new and rare species from districts 
never before trodden by the foot of a botanist, have enriched Dr. Hooker’s 
Herbarium no less than that of his father. To Mr. Gunn we shall be in¬ 
debted for the catalogue of Tasmanian plants being more complete than 
could otherwise have been expected, considering the nature of the country, 
and the many portions yet unknown to the European. 
THE BOOMERANG. 
In the Minutes of the Tasmanian Society, p. 157, reference 
was made to a Paper on the Antiquity of the Boomerang*, read 
at a meeting of the Royal Irish Academy, which is of sufficient 
interest to deserve a place in this Journal : — 
Mr. Samuel Ferguson read the first part of a paper 11 on the Antiquity 
of the Kiliee, or Boomerang." the object of which was to show, that the 
peculiar characteristics of that instrument belonged to the coteia and 
anclye of the Latin classic writers, the latter being, most probably, iden¬ 
tical with the ale ys of the Greeks. 
The chief proofs in the case of the coteia turned, 1st, on the epithet 
j panda applied to it by Silius Itallcus (Punic. 1. iii. v. 278), and, 2nd, on 
the description of it given by Isidore, a writer of the end of the sixth and 
beginning of the seventh century, who states concerning it, “ Si ab ar - 
tijic e miltatvr rursitm redit ad earn qutmisit." (Origin. 1. xviii. c. 7*) 
The chief proofs ir. the case of the aclys, rested, 1st, on the identifica¬ 
tion of the atlyS and coteia ♦ by Servius (in ASneid. 1. vii. v. 730, 741) ; 
2nd. on an inference of its semi-Umar shape, drawn from Valerius Flac- 
cus (Argonaut. 1. vi. w 99); and 3rd, on the statement of Sidonius Ap- 
pollinaris, a writer of the fifth century, who, referring, as it would 
appear, to these weapons, describes them as missiles, “ qme feriant his 
missa eemel.” (Garni. V. v. 102.) 
The identity of aclys and ancyle was inferred from their apparent 
etymological relation, and from the statement of the Scholiast on Eu¬ 
ripides. (Euripid. Orest, v. 1179). 
An investigation of the radical meanings of these names confirmed the 
testimonies adduced, by showing that each was properly descriptive of a 
curved instrument. 
The statement of Isidore, that the cateia and club of Hercules were the 
same, was, in like manner, confirmed by an investigation of the radical 
meaning of the word r lava, and by the exhibition of drawings of curved 
clavcE (almost identical in form with a variety of the Australian instru¬ 
ment) taken from the antique, one of which appeared to have been in¬ 
tended to represent the Herculean weapon. A further confirmation was 
drawn from the fact, that instruments, formed on the model of these, 
were found to exhibit the peculiar flight of the boomerang. So also of 
the club or hammer of Thor, the Hercules of Scandinavian mythology, 
stated in the Edda to have possessed similar properties ; instruments of a 
X, and hammer shape, being also found to exhibit all the peculiarities of 
the Australian weapon. Hence, an illustration of the crosses on Pagan 
British coins, and of the tradition of cruciform missiles still preserved in 
Irish romances. 
The connexion between the curved club and the boomerang being thus 
established, it was suggested, that some relationship might be looked for 
between the Germanic nations, who still call the club keile and kiele, a 
name properly descriptive of a crooked weapon, and the Australian tribes 
who call the cognate instrument kiliee. 
