The First Missile
The Cave Man of prehistoric times unconsciously invented arms and ammunition.
What They Saw.
Accordingly, one morning several of them followed at a careful distance as he sought the shore of a stream where water-fowl might be found. Parting the leaves, they saw him pick up a pebble from the bank and then, to their surprise, take off his girdle of skin and place the stone in its center, holding both ends with his right hand.
Stranger still, he whirled the girdle twice around his head, then released one end so that the leather strip flew out and the stone shot straight at a bird in the water.
The mystery was solved. They had seen the first slingman in action.
The Use of Slings.
The new plan worked with great success, and a little practice made expert marksmen. We know that most of the early races used it for hunting and in war. We find it shown in pictures made many thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt and Assyria. We find it in the Roman army where the slingman was called a “funditor.”
We find it in the Bible where it is written of the tribe of Benjamin: “Among all these people there were seven hundred chosen men left-handed; every one could sling a stone at an hair breadth and not miss.” Surely, too, you remember the story of David and Goliath when the young shepherd “prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone.”