SLING, an instrument with which stones or other missiles may be thrown to a great distance. In its simplest form the sling consists of a thong of leather, or a piece of cord or some woven fabric, both ends of which are held in the hand of the slinger. The stone or missile is placed in the fold or double of the thong, which is made wide at that part, and sometimes furnished with a slit or socket for the purpose of holding it; and the sling is then whirled round to gain an impetus. When a sufficient degree of centrifugal force is thus generated, the clinger allows one end of the thong to escape, and the stone, being thereby released, flies off with considerable velocity. In the Lauds of an expert slinger, this instrument may be made to project missiles to a great distance, and with surprising accuracy.
The simplicity and portability of the sling, and the facility with which supplies of ammunition for it might be obtained, led to its extensive use among the ancients as a weapon of war, as well as for other purposes. Its common use among the Jews is intimated by several passages of scripture. Several ancient paintings represent the use of the sling at an early period by the Egyptians. Some of these are given by Wilkinson. In the Greek and Roman armies the light troops consisted in great part of slingers, who were called ospubovijrcii, or funditoree, from ovevadvn, and fanda, the Greek and Latin names of the weapon. The Carduchi, according to Xenophon, annoyed the retreating army of the Ten Thousand by their powerful slings. Anab.', iv. 1, &e.) There are no slingers mentioned in Homer ; and the word which usually means sling (troev86y4) occurs only once (‘ Iliad,' book xiii., line 599), and then not in the sense of sling, but in the primary sense of the word, which means a broad band or bandage. This passage has sometimes been strangely misunderstood. The sling is not mentioned by Herodotus ; and it is an error to assign the use of it to the Persians, for which there appears no evidence but a loose expression in Diodorus (xviii. 51), where he speaks of Persians,
bowmen and (+lingers, five hundred." The natives of the Balearic Islands attained the highest reputation for their skill in its manage ment ; which is attributed to their custom of teaching their children, while very young, to wield it, and forbidding them, it Is said, to taste their food until they had dislodged it from a post or beam by means of a sling. Besides stones, leaden plummets, cast in moulds, were used as projectiles for the sling. These, which were called glandes, or aoSuflaidss, were of an elongated spheroidal form ; somewhat resembling that of olives or acorns. They have been often discovered in various parts of Greece, and frequently bear on one side a figure of a thunder bolt, and on the other side either the word AEBIAI (take this), the name of their owner, or some other inscription or device. Some of thee were of considerable size, weighing as much as an Attic pound, or 100 drachmme. Fireballs also have been thrown by slings. Some of the slings used by the ancients were managed by more than one cord ; One, two, or three being used, according to the size of the missiles to be thrown.
The sling was long used in England. The Saxons certainly used it, and seem to have been skilful in its management. Besides the ordinary sling, they used one attached to a staff or truncheon three or four feet long, wielded with both hands. This kind of sling, with which large stones were thrown, appears to have been used principally in sieges and in naval warfare. It is represented in an old drawing, supposed to be by Matthew Paris. Slingers formed a 'Art also of the Anglo-Norman soldiery ; and the sling had not fallen into disuse as a military weapon at the commencement of the 15th century The use of the sling may now be considered obsolete in this country as an olfensive weapon.
(1Vilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, first series, vol. i.; Strutt's Sports and Pastimes.)