fact of the word ‘kaskassim’, used in the text of 1 Sam. xvii,
being the same employed in Leviticus and Ezekiel, to express the
scales of fish.[69] Amongst the Romans, scale armour was regarded as
characteristic of barbarians, but they appear to have adopted it in the
time of the Emperors. A suit of Japanese armour in my collection shows
four distinct systems of defence, the back and breast being of solid
plates, the sleeves and leggings composed of small pieces of iron,
stitched on to cloth, and united with chain, whilst other portions are
quilted with enclosed pieces of iron (Fig. 42, _a_ and _b_). Fig. 43,
_a_ and _b_, is a suit of Chinese armour, in the Museum, having large
iron scales on the inside (Fig. 44). This system was also employed in
Europe. Fig. 45 is the inner side of a suit of ‘jazerine’ armour of the
fifteenth or sixteenth century, in my collection. Fig. 46 represents
a similar suit in the Museum of the Institution, probably of the same
date, having large scales of iron on the outside. A last vestige of
scale armour may be seen in the dress of the Albanians, which, like the
Scotch and ancient Irish kilt, and that formerly worn by the Maltese
peasantry, is a relic of costume of the Greek and Roman age. In the
Albanian jacket the scales are still represented in gold embroidery.[70]
_Offensive Weapons of Men and Animals._
[Illustration: PLATE X.]
_Piercing Weapons._ The Gnu of South Africa, when pressed, will attack
men, bending its head downwards, so as to pierce with the point of
its horn.[71] The same applies to many of the antelope tribe. The
rhinoceros destroys the elephant with the thrust of its horn, ripping
up the belly (Plate X, fig. 47). The horn rests on a strong arch formed
by the nasal bones; those of the African rhinoceros, two in number,
are fixed to the nose by a strong apparatus of muscles and tendons,
so that they are loose when the animal is in a quiescent state, but
become firm and immovable when he is enraged, showing in an especial
manner that this apparatus is destined for warlike purposes.[72] It
is capable of piercing the ribs of a horse, passing through saddle,
padding, and all.[73] Mr. Atkinson, in his Siberian travels, speaks of
the tusk of the wild boar, which in those parts is long, and as sharp
as a knife, and he describes the death of a horse which was killed
by a single stroke from this animal, delivered in the chest.[74] The
buffalo charges at full speed with its horn down.[75] The bittern, with
its beak, aims always at the eye.[76] The walrus (Fig. 48) attacks
fiercely with its pointed tusks, and will attempt to pierce the side
of a boat with them.[77] The needle-fish of the Amazons is armed
with a long pointed lance.[78] The same applies to the sword-fish of
the Mediterranean and Atlantic (Fig. 49), which, notwithstanding its
food is mostly vegetable, attacks the whale with its spear-point on
all occasions of meeting. There is an instance on record, of a man,
whilst bathing in the Severn near Worcester, having been killed by the
sword-fish.
The weapon of the sword-fish is used as a spear-head by the wild tribes
of Cambodia, and some idea may be formed of its efficiency for this
purpose, and of the confidence with which it is used, by the following
account of an attack on a rhinoceros with this weapon, by Mons.
Mouhot.[79] He says:--
‘The manner in which the rhinoceros is hunted by the Laotians is
curious, on account of its simplicity and the skill they display....
They had bamboos, with iron blades, something between a bayonet and a
poignard. The weapon of the chief was the horn of a sword-fish, long,
sharp, strong, supple, and not likely to break. Thus armed, we set
off into the thickest part of the forest, with all the windings of
which our leader was familiar, and could tell with tolerable certainty
where we should find our expected prey. After penetrating nearly two
miles into the forest, we suddenly heard the crackling of branches, and
rustling of the dry leaves. The chief went on in advance, signing to us
to keep a little way behind, but to have our arms in readiness. Soon
our leader uttered a shrill cry, as a token that the animal was near;
he then commenced striking against each other two bamboo canes, and the
men set up wild yells to provoke the animal to quit his retreat.
‘A few minutes only elapsed before he rushed towards us, furious at
having been disturbed. He was a rhinoceros of the largest size, and
opened a most enormous mouth. Without any sign of fear, but on the
contrary of great exultation, as though sure of his prey, the intrepid
hunter advanced, lance in hand, and then stood still, waiting for the
creature’s assault. I must say I trembled for him, and loaded my gun
with two balls; but when the rhinoceros came within reach, and opened
his immense jaws to seize his enemy[80], the hunter thrust his lance
into him to a depth of some feet, and calmly retired to where we were
posted.’ After the animal was dead, the chief withdrew his sword-fish
blade, and presented it to Mons. Mouhot.
The narwhal has a still more formidable weapon of the same kind (Pl.
X, fig. 50). It attacks the whale, and occasionally the bottoms of
ships, a specimen of the effect of which attack, from the Museum of
the Institution, is represented in Fig. 51. The Esquimaux, who, in
the accounts which they give of their own customs, profess to derive
much experience from the habits of the animals amongst which they
live, use the narwhal’s tusk for the points of their spears. Fig.
52 represents a ‘nuguit’ from Greenland, of the form mentioned by
Cranz[81]; it is armed with the point of the narwhal’s tusk. Fig. 53,
from my collection, has the shaft also of narwhal’s tusk; it is armed
with a metal blade, but it is introduced here in order to show the
association which existed in the mind of the constructor between his
weapon and the animal from which the shaft is derived, and for the
capture of which it is chiefly used. The wooden shaft, it will be seen,
is constructed in the form of the fish, and the ivory fore-shaft is
inserted in the snout in the exact position of that of the fish itself.
At Kotzebue Sound, Captain Beechey[82] found the natives armed with
lances composed of a walrus tooth fixed to the end of a wooden staff
(Fig. 54). They also employ the walrus tooth for the points of their
tomahawks (Fig. 55). The horns of the antelope are used as lance-points
by the Djibba negroes of Central Africa, as already mentioned (p. 52),
and in Nubia also by the Shillooks and Dinkas.[83] The antelope’s
horn is also used in South Africa for the same purpose.[84] The argus
pheasant of India[85], the wing-wader of Australia[86], and the plover
of Central Africa[87], have spurs on their wings, with which they
fight; the cock and turkey have spurs on their feet, used expressly
for offence. The white crane of America has been known to drive its
beak deep into the bowels of a hunter.[88] The Indians of Virginia, in
1606, are described as having arrows armed with the spurs of the turkey
and beaks of birds.[89] In the Christy collection there is an arrow,
supposed to be from South America, which is armed with the natural
point of the deer’s horn (Fig. 56). The war-club of the Iroquois,
called GA-NE-U´-GA-O-DUS-HA, or ‘deer-horn war-club’, was armed with
a point of the deer’s horn (Fig. 57), about 4 inches in length; since
communication with Europeans, a metal point has been substituted
(Fig. 58). It appears highly probable that the ‘martel-de-fer’ of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which is also used in India and
Persia, may have been derived, as its form indicates, from a horn
weapon of this kind. Horn points suitable for arming such weapons have
been found both in England and Ireland, two specimens of which are
in my collection.[90] The weapon of the sting-ray, from the method of
using it by the animal itself, should more properly be classed with
serrated weapons, but it is a weapon in general use amongst savages for
spear or arrow points (Fig. 59), for which it has the particular merit
of breaking off in the wound. It causes a frightful wound, and being
sharply serrated, as well as pointed, there is no means of cutting
it out. It is used in this way by the inhabitants of Gambier Island,
Samoa[91], Otaheite[92], the Fiji Islands[93], Pellew Islands[94], and
many of the Low Islands. Amongst the savages of tropical South America,
the blade of the ray, probably the _Trygon histrix_, is used for
arrow-points.[95]
In the _Balistes capriscus_ (Fig. 60 _a_), a rare British fish, the
anterior dorsal is preceded by a strong erectile spine, which is
used for piercing other fishes from beneath. Its base is expanded
and perforated, and a bolt from the supporting plate passes freely
through it. When this spine is raised, a hollow at the back receives a
prominence from the next bony ray, which fixes the spine in an erect
position, as the hammer of a gun-lock acts at full-cock, and the spine
cannot be forced down till this prominence is withdrawn, as by pulling
the trigger. This mechanism may be compared to the fixing and unfixing
of a bayonet; when the spine is unfixed and bent down, it is received
into a groove on the supporting plate, and offers no impediment to the
progress of the fish through the water. These fishes are also found in
a fossil state, and, to use the words of Professor Owen, from whose
work this description of the _Balistes_ is borrowed, exemplify in a
remarkable manner the efficacy, beauty, and variety of the ancient
armoury of that order.[96] The stickleback is armed in a similar
manner, and is exceedingly pugnacious. The _Cottus diceraus, Pall._
(Fig. 60 _b_), has a multi-barbed horn on its back, exactly resembling
the spears of the Esquimaux, South American, and Australian savages.
The _Naseus fronticornis, Lac._ (Fig. 60 _c_), has also a spear-formed
weapon. The Yellow-bellied Acanthurus is armed with a spine of
considerable length upon its tail.
The Australians of King George’s Sound use the pointed fin of the
roach to arm their spears[97]; the inhabitants of New Guinea also arm
their arrows with the offensive horn of the saw-fish, and with the
claw of the cassowary. The sword of the Limulus, or king-crab, is an
offensive weapon; its habits do not appear to be well understood, but
its weapon is used in some of the Malay islands for arrow-points (Fig.
61). The natives of San Salvador, when discovered by Columbus, used
lances pointed with the teeth of fish.[98] The spine of the Diodon is
also used for arrow-points (Fig. 62). Amongst other piercing weapons
suggested by the horns of animals may be noticed the Indian ‘kandjar’
composed of one side of the horn of the buffalo, having the natural
form and point (Fig. 63). In later times a metal dagger, with ivory
handle, was constructed in the same country (Fig. 64), after the exact
model of the one of horn, the handle having one side flat, in imitation
of the half-split horn, though of course that peculiar form was no
longer necessitated by the material then used. The same form of weapon
was afterwards used with a metal handle (Fig. 65). The sharp horns of
the ‘sasin’, or common antelope, often steel pointed, are still used
as offensive weapons in India (Figs. 66, 67, 68). Several examples
of these are in the Museum of the Institution. Three stages of this
weapon are exhibited, the first having the natural point, the second a
metal point, and the third a weapon of nearly the same form composed
entirely of metal. The Fakirs and Dervishes, not being permitted by
their profession to carry arms, use the pointed horn of the antelope
for this purpose. Fig. 69 is a specimen from my collection; from its
resemblance to the Dervishes’ crutch of Western Asia, I presume it
can be none other than the one referred to in the _Journal of the
Archaeological Association_, from which I obtained this information
respecting the Dervishes’ weapon.[99] Mankind would also early derive
instruction from the sharp thorns of trees, with which he must come
in contact in his rambles through the forests; the African mimosa, the
Gledischia, the American aloe, and the spines of certain palms, would
afford him practical experience of their efficacy as piercing weapons,
and accordingly we find them often used by savages in barbing their
arrows.[100]
_Striking Weapons._ Many animals defend themselves by blows delivered
with their wings or legs; the giraffe kicks like a horse as well as
strikes sideways with its blunt horns; the camel strikes with its
fore legs and kicks with its hind legs; the elephant strikes with its
proboscis and tramples with its feet; eagles, swans, and other birds
strike with their wings; the swan is said to do so with sufficient
force to break a man’s leg; the cassowary strikes forward with its
feet; the tiger strikes a fatal blow with its paw; the whale strikes
with its tail, and rams with such force, that the American whaler
_Essex_ is said to have been sunk by that animal.[101] There is no
known example of mankind in so low a state as to be unacquainted
with the use of artificial weapons. The practice of boxing with the
fist, however, is by no means confined to the British Isles as some
people seem to suppose, for besides the Romans, Lusitanians[102], and
others mentioned in classical history, it prevailed certainly in the
Polynesian islands[103] and in Central Africa.[104]
_Serrated Weapons._ This class of weapons in animals corresponds to the
cutting weapons of men. Amongst the most barbarous races, however, as
amongst animals, no example of a cutting weapon is found[105]: although
the Polynesian islanders make very good knives of the split and
sharpened edges of bamboo, and the Esquimaux, also, use the split tusk
of the walrus as a knife, these cannot be regarded, nor, indeed, are
they used, as edged weapons. These, strictly speaking, are confined to
the metal age, and their place, in the earliest stages of civilization,
is supplied by weapons with serrated, or saw-like edges.
[Illustration: PLATE XI.]
Perhaps the nearest approach in the animal kingdom to an edged weapon
is the fore-arm of the mantis, a kind of cricket, used by the Chinese
and others in the East for their amusement. Their combats have been
compared to that of two soldiers fighting with sabres. They cut and
parry with their fore-arms, and, sometimes, a single stroke with these
is sufficient to decapitate, or cut in two the body of an antagonist.
But on closer inspection, these fore-arms are found to be set with a
row of strong and sharp spines, similar to those of all other animals
that are provided with this class of weapon. The snout of the saw-fish
is another example of the serrated weapon. Its mode of attacking the
whale is by jumping up high in the air, and falling on the animal, not
with the point, but with the sides of its formidable weapon, both edges
of which are armed with a row of sharp horns, set like teeth, by means
of which it rasps a severe cut in the flesh of the whale. The design
in this case is precisely analogous to that of the Australian savage,
who throws his similarly constructed spear so as to strike, not with
the bone point, but with its more formidable edges, which are thick set
with a row of sharp-pointed pieces of obsidian, or rock-crystal. The
saw-fish is amongst the most widely distributed of fishes, belonging
to the arctic, antarctic, and tropical seas. It may, therefore, very
possibly have served as a model in many of the numerous localities in
which this character of weapon is found in the hands of savages. The
snout itself is used as a weapon by the inhabitants of New Guinea, the
base being cut and bound round so as to form a handle. Plate XI, fig.
70, is a specimen from the Museum of the Institution. The weapon of
the sting-ray, though used by savages for spear-points, more properly
belongs to this class, as the mode of its employment by the animal
itself consists in twisting its long, slender tail round the object of
attack, and cutting the surface with its serrated edge.[106] The teeth
of all animals, including those of man himself, also furnish examples
of serrated weapons.
When we find models of this class of weapon so widely distributed
in the lower creation, it is not surprising that the first efforts
of mankind in the construction of trenchant implements, should so
universally consist of teeth or flint flakes, arranged along the edges
of staves or clubs, in exact imitation of the examples which he finds
ready to his hand, in the mouths of the animals which he captures,
and on which he is dependent for his food. Several specimens of
implements, edged in this manner with sharks’ teeth, from the Museum
of the Institution, are represented in Plate XI, figs. 71, 72, 73,
74. They are found chiefly in the Marquesas, in Tahiti, Depeyster’s
Island, Byron’s Isles, the Kingsmill Group, Radak Island[107], and
the Sandwich Islands[108], also in New Zealand (Fig. 75). They are of
various shapes, and are used for various cutting purposes, as knives,
swords, and glaives. Two distinct methods of fastening the teeth to
the wood prevail in the Polynesian Islands; firstly, by inserting them
in a groove cut in the sides of the stick or weapon; and secondly, by
arranging the teeth in a row, along the sides of the stick, between
two small strips of wood on either side of the teeth, lashed on to the
staff, in all cases, with small strings, composed of plant fibre. The
points of the teeth are usually arranged in two opposite directions on
the same staff, so that a severe cut may be given either in thrusting
or withdrawing the weapon.[109]
A similarly constructed implement, also edged with sharks’ teeth,
was found by Captain Graah on the east coast of Greenland, and is
mentioned in Dr. King’s paper on the industrial arts of the Esquimaux,
in the _Journal of the Ethnological Society_.[110] The teeth in this
implement were secured by small nails, or pegs of bone; it was also
used formerly on the West Coast. A precisely similar implement (Fig.
76), but showing an advance in art by being set with a row of chips of
meteoric iron, was found amongst the Esquimaux of Davis Strait, and is
now in the department of meteorolites in the British Museum. Others,
of the same nature, from Greenland, are in the Christy collection
(Fig. 77). The ‘pacho’ of the South Sea Islands appears to have been a
sort of club, armed on the inner side with sharks’ teeth, set in the
same manner.[111] The Tapoyers, of Brazil, used a kind of club, which
was broad at the end, and set with teeth and bones, sharpened at the
point.[112]
Hernandez gives an account of the construction of the Mexican
‘maquahuilt’ or Aztec war-club, which was armed on both sides with a
row of obsidian flakes, stuck into holes, and fastened with a kind
of gum (Fig. 78).[113] Herrera, the Spanish historian, also mentions
these as swords of wood, having a groove in the fore part, in which
the flints were strongly fixed with bitumen and thread.[114] In 1530,
according to the Spanish historians, Copan was defended by 30,000 men,
armed with these weapons, amongst others[115]; and similar weapons
have been represented in the sculptures of Yucatan.[116] They are
also represented in Lord Kingsborough’s important work on Mexican
antiquities, from which the accompanying representations are taken
(Figs. 78, 79, 80). One of these swords, having six pieces of obsidian
on each side of the blade, is to be seen in a Museum in Mexico.
In the burial mounds of Western North America, Mr. Lewis Morgan, the
historian of the Iroquois,[117] mentions that rows of flint flakes have
been found lying, side by side, in order, and suggesting the idea that
they must have been fastened into sticks in the same manner as those of
Mexico and Yucatan.
Throughout the entire continent of Australia the natives arm their
spears with small sharp pieces of obsidian, or crystal, and recently of
glass, arranged in rows along the sides near the point, and fastened
with a cement of their own preparation, thereby producing a weapon
which, though thinner in the shaft, is precisely similar in character
to those already described (Figs. 81 and 82). Turning again to the
northern hemisphere, we find in the Museum of Professor Nilsson, at
Lund, in Sweden, a smooth, sharp-pointed piece of bone, found in that
country, about six inches long, grooved on each side to the depth of
about a quarter of an inch, into each of which grooves a row of fine,
sharp-edged, and slightly-curved flints were inserted, and fixed with
cement. The instrument thus armed was fastened to the end of a shaft
of wood, and might either have been thrown by the hand or projected
from a bow (Fig. 83). Another precisely similar implement (Fig. 84) is
represented in the illustrated Catalogue of the Museum at Copenhagen,
showing that in both these countries this system of constructing
trenchant implements was employed. In Ireland, although there is no
actual evidence of flints having been set in this manner, yet from the
numerous examples of this class of weapon that are found elsewhere, and
the frequent occurrence of flint implements of a form that would well
adapt them to such a purpose, the author of the Catalogue of the Royal
Irish Academy expresses his opinion that the same arrangement may very
possibly have existed in that country, and that the wood in which they
were inserted may, like that which, as I have already said, is supposed
to have held the flints found in the graves of the Iroquois, have
perished by decay.
_Poisoned Weapons._ It is unnecessary to enter here into a detailed
account of the use of poison by man and animals. Its use by man as a
weapon of offence is chiefly confined to those tropical regions in
which poisonous herbs and reptiles are most abundant. It is used by the
Negroes, Bushmen, and Hottentots of Africa; in the Indian Archipelago,
New Hebrides, and New Caledonia. It appears formerly to have been used
in the South Seas. It is employed in Bootan; in Assam; by the Stiens
of Cambodia; and formerly by the Moors of Mogadore. The Parthians and
Scythians used it in ancient times; and it appears always to have been
regarded by ancient writers as the especial attribute of barbarism.
The Italian bravoes of modern Europe also used it. In America it is
employed by the Darian Indians, in Guiana, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, and
on the Orinoco. The composition of the poison varies in the different
races, the Bushmen and Hottentots using the venomous secretions of
serpents and caterpillars,[118] whilst most other nations of the world
employ the poisonous herbs of the different countries they inhabit,
showing that in all probability this must have been one of those arts
which, though of very early origin, arose spontaneously and separately
in the various quarters of the globe, after the human family had
separated. This subject, however, is deserving of a separate treatment,
and will be alluded to elsewhere.
In drawing a parallel between the weapons of men and animals used
in the application of poison for offensive purposes, two points of
similitude deserve attention.