Note 115 — Chapter III · THE WEAPONS OF THE AGE OF WOOD: THE BOOMERANG AND THE SWORD OF WOOD; OF STONE, AND OF WOOD AND STONE COMBINED.
Reading edition
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.