SLING, an implement for casting missiles, also, a hanging loop to support a wounded limb, a chain with hooks for raising or lower ing heavy goods (from M.E. slingen, to fling, throw. with a jerk, IceL slyngva, cf. Ger. schlingen, to twist). The sling is probably the earliest device by which force and range were given to the arm of a thrower of missiles. Sling stones from the stone age are frequent. (See ARMS AND ARMOUR.) The type of weapon is of two kinds ; the sling proper consists of a small strap or socket of leather or hide to which two cords are attached; the stinger holds the two ends in one hand, whirls the socket and missile rapidly round the head and, loosing one cord sharply, despatches the missile; the other type is the staff sling, in which the sling itself is attached to a short staff, held in both hands. This was used for heavier missiles, especially in siege operations during the middle ages. There are many ref erences to slings and to slingers in the Bible; the left-handed slingers of Benjamin were famous (Judges xx. 16). The Assyrian monuments show the sling of the ordinary type and slingers were used in the ancient Egyptian army, but not before the 8th cen tury B.C. The sling (Gr. 0*P&5vn, Lat. funda) is not mentioned
in Homer; Herodotus (vii. 158) speaks of the slingers in the army offered by Gelon to serve against the Persians; it seems to have been a weapon chiefly used by barbarian troops. The Acarnanians, however, were expert slingers (Thuc. ii. 81), and so also were the Achaeans, who later invented the sling which dis charged a shaft with an iron bolt head (Livy xlii. 65, from Poly bius). In the Roman army by the time of the Punic wars the slingers (funditores) were auxiliaries from Greece, Syria and i Africa. The Balearic islanders, who were Hannibal's army were always famous as slingers. In mediaeval times the sling was much used in the Frankish army, especially in defending trenches, while the staff-sling was used against fortifications in the 14th century. Till the 17th century, they were used to throw grenades.