and hand to hand, which placed personal bravery in so prominent a position. While the Greek or Trojan warrior advanced across the plain before the eyes of gods and men, alone, strong only in his valour, and without other arms. than the sword and spear, the archer crouched behind a wall or rampart of bucklers, and from this secure hidingplace spread death among the ranks of the enemy. At the siege of Troy, Teucer, the famous archer, cowered under the broad buckler of Ajax, and from this hidingplace shot down a multitude of brave warriors. "Every time that Ajax raised his buckler," says the Greek poet, "Teucer, taking aim, discharged his arrows into the mêlée, and those whom he struck fell, never to rise again. But immediately after shooting the archer took refuge again with Ajax, like an infant in its mother's breast; and the son of Telamon covered him with his powerful ægis.” From this it is easy to understand how the ancient heroes had so low an opinion of the weapon of long range.

We remark also in the same poet with what contempt the valiant Diomedes addresses Paris, who had shot an arrow at him, and who, to do this the more safely, had taken shelter behind a tombstone. "Wretched archer," cried the warrior, "you who boast of your curled hair, and who think of nothing but women, if you dare to attack me armed only with my fist, face to face, your bow and your numerous arrows would not save you. You plume yourself too much in having grazed my foot. I am no more disturbed by my wound than I should be by the stroke of a woman's hand or by that of a weak infant. The arrows of a warrior who has neither strength nor skill do no harm. But such is not the case with the weapons thrown by my hands. Evil is his fate who feels

the point of my javelin; his wife will beat her face; his children will be orphans; and his body will rot upon the ground which has been reddened with his blood. More vultures than women will crowd around him." The warrior of the olden time, in danger of receiving a treacherous arrow, had the same contempt for the bow and the archers which the knights of the Middle Ages, burdened with their armour, might have felt for fire-arms in the first years of the use of gunpowder.

It must not, however, be concluded from what we have said that the bow was regarded as a vile and contemptible weapon, not worthy to be used by free

men.

Even the most disdainful were forced to own that it was an advance upon earlier inventions, among them the sling, which itself was an improvement on the stone thrown by the hand.

The Sling in Action.

The sling is a weapon made of cord or of hide, at the end of which a stone more or less heavy is placed, to be thrown to a distance. It is unnecessary to describe an instrument which is a plaything in the hands of every schoolboy, but it may be stated that its principle is the bringing into play of centrifugal force. The stone, swung round in the sling, tends to fly off at a tangent, and tightens the sling with an intensity which is proportionate to the centrifugal force; but it is held back by the hand, which in whirling round the sling restrains the flight of the charge it contains. The stone escapes at a tangent the instant the hand ceases to act.

The inhabitants of Palestine made use in very ancient times of this dangerous weapon, the most skilful in its use being the tribe of Benjamin, whose boast it was never

to miss their aim (Judges xx. 16). What makes their skill appear more surprising still was that they managed the sling with the left hand. The men who came to David's help at Ziklag were no less adroit; they used David was worthy

at will either the right hand or the left.

of such allies, as is proved by his victory over the giant Goliath, whom he brought to the earth with a pebble shot in this way. The sling seems to have been in ancient times the favourite weapon of shepherds, who with it drove away wild beasts preying on their flocks. David's skill is therefore the less surprising, for no doubt he had great practice in the use of this instrument while guarding his father's sheep.

It has been asserted that the Asiatic nations excelled all Europeans in the management of the sling; but this is not warranted, at least in the case of the inhabitants of the Balearic Isles, whose wonderful skill has passed into a proverb. They threw more murderous projectiles with their slings than with any other discharging weapon, making use of them even in attacking towns, and with the stones which they hurled from them in pitched battles breaking even the bucklers, helmets, and javelins of their enemies. "These natives have such a skill of hand," says Diodorus of Sicily, "that it very rarely happens that they miss their aim. What makes them so great in the use of the sling is the training given them from their earliest years by their mothers, who set up a piece of bread hung at the end of a rod as a target, and let their children remain without food until they have hit it, when they receive it as the reward of their skill and patience."

The slings of the inhabitants of the Balearic Isles were made of a piece of rush or cane. Each man usually

possessed three, of different lengths, corresponding with the distances to which the stone was to be thrown. The slings used by other nations were made of hide or plaited cord. The Greeks employed three thongs; among others the instrument was made of one only. It was not known in Greece in the earliest times, and is not mentioned by Homer. At a later period the Acarnanians were considered the most skilful slingers of Greece; next came the Achaians, especially those of Ægium, of Patræ, and of Dyme. The weapon was used to throw not only stones but balls of lead, and in some localities, especially in the Plain of Marathon, many of these projectiles of metal have been found. These relics are interesting from the inscriptions and devices which are cut upon them, and which consist of the names of persons and appropriate epithets, the legend in many cases meaning, when freely translated, "Look out!"

The soldiers always carried with them a supply of these projectiles in a fold of their tunic, which formed a sort of bag, as may be seen in the ancient sculptures. The bas-reliefs of Trajan's Column exhibit a slinger of the Roman army, some German auxiliary, having his pallium supplied with projectiles, his sling in his hand, his arm extended to brandish his weapon above his head. The Romans maintained troops of slingers, who, like the archers, harassed the enemy with volleys of stones and bullets, and as soon as their position became serious, fell back into the rear. The range of these slings is said to have been 600 Roman feet.

The French and English armies also in early times included slingers, who were retained even after the invention of gunpowder, and the Spaniards made use of the

instrument down to the middle of the fourteenth century. I doubt if these slingers would have had any chance with the people mentioned by Aristotle, who, when they saw a flock of birds passing above their heads, arranged among themselves for the turns of bringing them down, each one fixing upon a particular bird as his mark, so certain were they of not missing them.

In the course of time the sling changed its form, and ceased to be itself held in the hand. The English began to attach it to a solid piece of wood, which the slinger held in his two hands.

It may here be remarked that though the inventions of man grow old and disappear before others which more fully meet the wants of the time, they are never entirely lost, but are to be found still existing in remote corners of the globe. It may be said that man cannot allow even the smallest portion of his works to return to nothingness. Thus, the use of the sling is not lost, for at the present day it is practised at the fêtes of certain peoples who inhabit mountainous countries.