Merry Christmas everyone

http://club.telepolis.com/gerar1/hondero-balear.jpg

Feliz Navidad¡¡
Jesús

Merry Christmas to you also, Honderro!

And a Merry Christmas to everyone else.

jeff <>< who really likes Christmas

The beautiful sculpure!

Merry Christmas to you, guys!

Jurek

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Where is this scupture? What is the story behind it?

Hi David, I like to answer this question. The sculpture is in Mallorca (Balearic Islands), at the building of the Balearic government. It shows one of those mythical Balearic honderos that saw the Romans in the islands when they arrived at Spain, and is  represented as they described them in clasic texts: almost naked, with a leather bag for stones and a sling of a single braid (divided in the middle to place the projectile). Soon they would engage them for his armies, although the Carthaginians have done it before to fight against Rome in the Punic wars.

Hondero
What ancient writer gave a discription of the Balearic slingers?
You can see some of my illustrations on this website. I did the color illustrations. Thanks so much!

http://www.mallorcaweb.net/foners/historia/menu.htm

Hello Johnny!

Welcome to the Forum!

I didn´t understand one word but your paintings was very, very nice! If I only could make it half that good!!

Ulrica

Thanks Ulrica
I will in the future post some more illustrations on this site. I'm a graphic artist/illustrator by profession and have done many things on the ancient Greek and Romans.
Thanks again!
Johnny

Hallo Johnny!

Then I understand why you can paint so good!
I´m looking forward to see some of your work here on this site!

And I hope you will like it here among us!

Ulrica

How do you post images?

Jhonny, I knew the Mallorcaweb site and always I have asked myself: who will be this Jhonny Shumate, the author of these interesting slingers illustrations? :)  Where else have you published drawings?
You can read descriptions of Balearic slingers mainly in Strabo and Diodorus.
To post images they can be previously placed in a web server, as Mallorca web i.e, and then you put its adress (URL) between the two codes that appears in your message when select the inser image icon, above the angry smiley, or just send them to our administrator Chris

Hondero

Great site with great illustrations!  I'll add a link to you under the "Other Websites" page.

What language is it in?  I can't get babelfish to recognize it.

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Chris

Johnny,

   Those are very good illustrations.
 

Chris,

The language of the site is CATALAN, the language that we speak in Cataluña, Valencia and Balearic Islands (and in the little country of Andorra, some parts in the south of France and in some islands of Italy). Those three regions conform what we call "Països Catalans" (Catalan Countries), that share a same language (totaly separated from Castilian or, as you say, Spanish) and a close historical background because the three regions were three different kingdoms united under the Crown of Aragon (a kind of confederation of kingdoms). All that ended when the king Fernando and the queen Isabel Los Católicos married and united both Crowns and began the history of what we call Spain. Nevertheless, we Catalans, Valencians and Belears still use our language and follow some of our old traditions. Some people even would like the independence from Spain.
   I invite you guys to know this language, cause it is very rich and you may enjoy our literature.

By the way, slinger in Catalan is FONER (Sling is called FONA) and in Castilian is HONDERO (Sling is called HONDA). I'm sure you already knew that.

Foner (from Valencia)

Foner;

wow. Everyday I learn something new! Thank you.

That sounds very interesting! But even if I should be interested in learning catalan, it would be hard to get books and a teacher, I think.

And right now I don´t have enough time to learn a fourth language.  :'(

Ulrica

Ulrica,

   You can read our classics in English or even in Swedish, just like you may have read the Quijote. I am sure you can find them in the libraries of your city. Come on!!. In fact, I would like you to recommend me some books from the swedish literature. Thank you.

Foner

He he Foner Valenciá, that kingdom of Aragon was lost in the mists of the centuries. Now the genuine Aragoneses do not want to know nothing of the Catalans, neither you Valencian of them, nor the Balearic ones of any of the others, and what to say of the French or anothers Mediterraneans?. The Catalan language even has variations or dialects between the different mentioned regions. As many others countries of the old Europe, of complex History, not only another language as the catalan, but several others  like the Basque or Gallego follows alive and conserves their cultural and literary patrimony.
But well, we didn´t say  this was not the site for political-linguistic-historical considerations???  >:( ;D

Hondero

Hondero,

   I was just trying to summarize the history. I know that it is very dangerous, but you will recognize that there were no political considerations. I just made a description. Nevertheless, I would like to say that I think that (with all due respect) you made a dangerous generalization by saying that Catalans, Valencians and Balears don't want to know about each other. Some do and some don't, just like in every aspect of life. Of course, Catalan has dialects just like spanish and every other language, but it's still the same language (and richer thanks to that variety).

wrote on Feb 3^rd, 2004 at 4:14am:

Ulrica,  You can read our classics in English or even in Swedish, just like you may have read the Quijote. I am sure you can find them in the libraries of your city. Come on!!. In fact, I would like you to recommend me some books from the swedish literature. Thank you. Foner

Thank you Foner!
I was more thinking about schoolbooks, not novels and romans.  And I´m not so good in swedisch classic books either.. It depends on what interest you have:
Childerns books; the ones Astrid Lindgren has been written
and for older people you have August Strindberg, Moa Martinsson and a bounch of others.

But then again we are "off Topic".  

Ulrica

Johnny,

If you need help posting pictures, just email them to me as attachments I'll email you back with how to embed them into your posts.

Chris

Thanks Chris
I'll let you know when I have some illustrations ready.
Johnny

Look closely at the sling in the pic.   Do you suppose a useable sling could be made as simply as this??

1/ Get a long piece of cord (how thick??)
2/ Double it
3/ Tie x4 simple overhand knots along it's doubled length:
    1 knot to create a retained cord finger loop
    2 knots to define the ends of a split "pouch"
    1 knot to provide a trigger cord grip, and keep
       the loose ends from flopping around.

Now THAT would be elegant design engineering!!

mgreenfield

Mgreenfield, of course that sling works very well. You have rediscovered what is called "knots sling", that is an  emergency sling to be done from a simple length of cord.
Congratulation¡¡

OhMyGosh!, great minds running in the same channels, and all that! ;D      I shall try to make up a couple "modern" ones, and report the results.   Any material and construction recommendations?    Many thanks Sr. H!

Don´t worry Mg, I often re-invent many thigs too ;D..We the slingers are so creatives... The knots sling has many variants and I must say yours is almost new. By the way, I generally use a sling as simple as the knots sling, original from me and that can be made in five minutes, but that has the same performance as the best sling you can make in many hours ;) I call it "honda de esparadrapo" (adhesive tape sling  ;D) I´m sure you can nearly imagin it.

Hondero

Once I posted here the description of the way adjusting the sling lenght by the special knot. That one is universal and is excelent for quick making the cradle from single rope.

Here you can find the pictures which step by step show how make it. The other knots you can make as you like.

http://www.slinging.org/forum2/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=1;action=display;num=1060640990;start=7#7

Jurek

OK Yurek¡¡  this is the solution I use in the knots sling. The three cords pouch add reliability to lodge the projectile. Other solution is to cut the cord in two halfs, overlaping the ends and knoting them in a conventional way. The only problem with knots slings are that the knots may obstruct the free release of missil and to induce deviations. Also that smooth projectils may slip out of the pouch by opening it with its weigh.

Hondero

Yurek, your "sling from a single rope" design is so cool!  I never would have thought of anything like that.  You are such an amazing person, and I am really your fan many times over!

Jean B.

Yes, that sling inspired me too.
I like knots, so I´ve already tried to do that sling.

There is so many different models and versons..
I want to test them all, but if I did there should be no more time for slinging   ;)

Ulrica

Hondero,

I use that knot only for shortening the cords of the sling, and I have got an idea that it would be the nice cradle for stones. So I don't know if the knots are a big hitch for stones. But this way gives smaller knots than second one with overlaped ends, and doesn't require cutting the rope. I must try that too.


magnumslinger,

Thank you for that kind words. They are especially nice for me, since I'm your fan too. I like your posts, they are clever and interesting for me :) Thanks for the support!

Ulrica,

I'm glad that you like that solution, making that sling will not take too much time, so you will be able to sling more. Enjoy :)

Jurek

Yurek, as I said I´ve used those knots of your lenght adaptation because they were the more elegant and fast solution to the problem of making the pouch, but in effect they have a small problem, and is that after some firings the pressure of the projectile on one of the cords of the pouch cause the slipping of it in the knot and is extended more than the others. The knot works well in the function you use it, with outer traction in relation to the pouch, but not with inner traction. Knotting firmly it can be delayed  the relaxation of one of the cords, but finally it is necessary to correct the lengths and to return to tighten. I have try another type of knots for this solution, without cutting the cord, but as I´m not expert in knots I´ve not found it. I trust in your ability to discover it  ;)

Hondero

I've been playing with these designs, too -- brilliant and inspiring, all!  Here's what I came up with for the cradle:

Makes loops or zig-zags in the middle, like so

<--retention cord
__________________
      _______________)
     (_____________________Release cord-->

          Pouch^

Go back and forth as many times as you like, depending on how many strands you want in the cradle.  Gather the zig-zags up on one end, and use the second half of Yurek's knot, the part that ties the end of the slip-knot, to tie all these loops together.  Do the same on the other end.  I hope this makes sense.  I made one this way and took it out to sling snow balls today, and it worked great!  The knots didn't interfere with the action at all, and with 7 stands, the snowballs stayed nicely seated -- most of the time, anyway.