[115] Trans. Irish Assoc. vol. xix. The Romans also called it aclys (Æn. vii. 730), which the dictionaries render as a ‘kind of dart.’ It was an archaic and barbarian weapon; and Virgil (Æn. vii. 730) attributes it to the Osci:—
Teretes sunt aclydes illis
Tela: sed hæc lento mos est aptare flagello.
This would mean that after the weapon is thrown it might be drawn back again with a leather thong. Possibly the cateia of Isidore (cateia, to cut or mangle, and catan, to fight; the Irish caꞇ̇ and the Welsh kad, a fight or a corps of fighters, Latin caterva), survives in the tip-cat. In the Keltic dialect of Wales catai is a weapon.
[116] See his learned note (p. 410) on the weapon and on Isidore (Orig. xviii. 7): ‘Hæc est cateia quam Horatius cajam dicit.’ The disputed word probably derives from the Keltic katten, to cast, to throw.
[117] Nile Tributaries, by Sir Samuel W. Baker, p. 51. The word has a curious likeness to the ‘tombat,’ a similar weapon in Australia (Col. A Lane-Fox, Anthrop. Coll. p. 31).
[118] The ‘Fans’ of M. du Chaillu, a corruption unfortunately adopted by popular works. In Gorilla-Land (i. 207) I have noticed the Náyin, or Mpangwe crossbow (with poisoned ebe, or dwarf bolt), which probably travelled up-Nile like the throw-stick. The détente and method of releasing the string from its notch are those of the toy forms of the European weapon. The Museum at Scarborough contains a crossbow from the Bight of Benin. The people of Bornu (North-West Africa) also use a crossbow rat-trap.
[119] It is called chakarani in the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar Coast, by Duarte Barbosa or Magellan (?). The Jibba negroes of Central Africa wear a similar weapon as a bracelet, sheathed in a strip of hide.
[120] Col. A. Lane-Fox, Anthrop. Coll., p. 33. For a comparative anatomy of the boomerang the reader will consult that volume, pp. 28–61. I have here noticed only the most remarkable points.
[121] The Sword stood in Case 2 of the Salle du Centre, numbered 695; and was described in p. 225 of the late Mariette Pasha’s catalogue. I cannot quite free myself from a suspicion that it was also a boomerang of unusual size. Some of the South African tribes still use throw-sticks a yard to a yard and a half long. ‘They are double as thick at one end as they are at the other,’ says Herr Holub (ii. 340), ‘the lighter extremity being in the usual way about as thick as one’s finger.’