BOLA
(BOH-luh)
A
rope with weights attached, used especially in South America to
catch cattle or game by entangling their legs. Common
clues: Cattle catcher; Vaquero's weapon; Weight-laden
lasso; Gaucho’s gadget; Weapon of two balls and a
cord Crossword
puzzle frequency:
once a year Frequency
in English language:
65328 / 86800
A
hunter mounted on a horse using bolas
Bolas
(from Spanish bola, "ball", also known as boleadoras)
are a throwing weapon similar to the surujin made of weights on
the ends of interconnected cords, designed to capture animals by
entangling their legs. They are most famously used by the South
American gauchos, but have been found in excavations of
pre-Hispanic settlements, especially in Patagonia, where
indigenous peoples used them to catch guanaco and ñandu.
Gauchos
use boleadoras to capture running cattle or game. Depending on
the exact design, the thrower grasps the boleadoras either by one
of the weights or by the nexus of the cords. He gives the balls
momentum by swinging them and then releases the boleadoras. The
weapon is usually used to entangle the animal's legs, but when
thrown with enough force might even inflict damage (e.g. breaking
a bone).
This
article is licensed under the GNU
Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Bolas".
|