THE SWORD AMONGST THE BARBARIANS (EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE).
Most works on Arms and Armour, when treating of Rome, describe the
weapons of her European neighbours ‘upon whom she sharpened the sword
of her valour as on a whetstone.’[936] The extent of the subject will
here confine me to a general glance, beginning with the Dacians on
the east and ending with the British Islands. I must reserve details
concerning the Kelts, the Scandinavians, the Slavs, and other northern
peoples for Part II., to which they chronologically belong.
The Dacians, especially of Dacia Trajana, Hungary, and Transylvania,
Moldavia, and Wallachia, are known to us chiefly by the bas-reliefs on
the Trajan Column. It was built by that emperor, who, like Hadrian,
followed in the footsteps of Divus Cæsar, to commemorate the conquests
of A.D. 103–104; and it dates three years before his death in A.D. 114.
The Dacian Sword was somewhat sickle-shaped, with an inner edge, like
the oldest Greek and its model, the Egyptian Khopsh. A Dacian Sword on
the trophy belonging to Dr. Gregorutti, of Papiriano, is a curved sabre
without a cross-bar.
I have elsewhere noticed the Thracian Sword. Dr. Evans[937] mentions
the fragment of a remarkable bronze blade from Grecian Thera; it has a
series of small broad-edged axes of gold, in shape like conventional
battle-axes, inlaid along the middle between two slightly projecting
ribs. The same author, speaking of the beautiful bronze Sword in the
Berlin Museum, reported to have been found at Pella in Macedonia,
mentions the suspicion that it may belong to the Rhine Valley.[938]
Ancient Illyria has transmitted the Roman Gladius to comparatively
modern ages. Bosnian tombs of Slavs, Moslem, and Christian, show the
short straight thrusting Sword, with simple cross-bar and round pommel.
It looks as if it had been copied from some classical coin.
[Heading: _THE OLD KELTIC SWORD._]
The ancient cemetery at Hallstadt in the Salzkammergut, occupied by the
Danubian-Keltic Alanni or Norican Taurisci, is especially interesting
for two reasons. It shows the Bronze Sword synchronous with the Iron,
and it proves that the change of metal involved little of alteration
in the form and character of the weapon. This, however, was to be
expected, as both were adapted for the same purpose—the thrust, not the
cut. Of the twenty-eight long Swords, six were of bronze, nineteen
of iron, and three with bronze hefts and iron blades; there were also
forty-five short Swords, iron blades with bronze or ivory handles.
The blade, about one mètre long, is leaf-shaped, two-edged, and
bevel-pointed. The small and guardless grip of 2·5 centimètres, when
made of bronze, meets the blade in a hollow crescent, like the British
Sword in the Tower, and is fastened with metal rivets. The pommel is
either a cone of metal or a crutch with a whorl ending either arm.
[Illustration: FIG. 283.—GERMAN OR SLAV SWORD. (From a bas-relief,
Halberstadt.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 284.—SCRAMASAX FROM HALLSTADT. (Jähns.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 285.—DANISH SCRAMASAX. (Ninth Century, Copenhagen.)]
Dr. Evans[939] mentions that in one instance the hilt and pommel of an
iron Sword are in bronze, in another the pommel alone; the hilt-plate
of iron being flat and rivetted like the bronzes. In others the pommel
is wanting. He has a broken iron Sword from this cemetery, the blade
showing a central rounded rib, with a small bead on either side. Also a
‘beautiful bronze Sword from the same locality, on the blade of which
are two small raised beads on either side of the central rib, and in
the spaces between them a three-fold wavy line punched in or engraved.
In this instance a tang has passed through the hilt, and was formed of
alternate blocks of bronze and of some substance that has perished,
possibly ivory. A magnificent iron Sword from Hallstadt, now in the
Vienna Museum, has the hilt and pommel of ivory inlaid with amber.’
Other grips were of bronze, wood, or bone. The sheaths were mostly
of wood, which seemed to have been covered with leather. Most of the
blades were buried without scabbards, and the bronze had been purposely
broken.
The forty-five short Swords represent the Ensis Noricus (μάχαιρα
Κέλτικα), and were in use till the Roman days. The iron-blades are
either leaf-shaped or formed like the peculiarly English anelace or
anlas, more or less conical and sharp-pointed; and the grip of bronze
or ivory ended in a simple crutch. Amongst them is a distinct Scramasax
which may be compared with the late Danish weapon.
Bronze blades are comparatively rare in Italy, although the use was
long retained and the weapon is often mentioned by Latin writers in
verse and prose.[940] This seems to decide the question against the
Roman origin of the North-European Sword: of course it is possible
that, like the Runic alphabet, they might have been copied from coins;
but there are other points which militate against this view. Dr. John
Evans[941] notes a peculiarity which he has often pointed out by word
of mouth, but which has not as yet been noticed in print. ‘It is, that
there is generally, though not universally, a proportion between the
length of the blade and the length of the hilt-plate; long sword blades
having, as a rule, long hilt-plates, and short sword blades short
hilt-plates. So closely is this rule of proportion preserved, that the
outline of a large sword on the scale of one-sixth would in some cases
absolutely correspond with that of one which was two-thirds of its
length if drawn on the scale of one-fourth.’ This suggests derivation,
as if an original _modulus_ of the weapon had appeared in a certain
racial centre and thence had radiated in all directions. Nor have we
any difficulty in determining that this centre was the Nile Valley.
The bronze Swords of Italy present varieties not found in Britain.[942]
The blade-sides are more nearly parallel, and many have a slender tang
at the hilt, sometimes with one central rivet-hole, sometimes with two
rivet-holes forming loops at either side of the ‘spine.’ In others the
blade slightly narrows for the tang, and each side has two semicircular
rivet-notches. In many Italian and French Swords the blade is drawn
out to a long tapering point, so that its edges present a sub-ogival
curve. On an Italian _quincussis_ or oblong bronze coin, six inches
and five-eighths by three inches and a half, and weighing about three
pounds and a half, is the representation of a leaf-shaped Sword with a
raised rib along the centre of the blade.[943] Upon the reverse appears
the figure of a scabbard with parallel sides and a nearly circular
chape. Another coin of the same type, engraved by Carelli,[944] has an
almost similar scabbard on the reverse, but the Sword on the obverse
is either sheathed or is not leaf-shaped, the sides being parallel:
the hilt is also curved, and there is a cross-guard. In fact upon the
one coin the weapon has the appearance of a Roman Sword of iron, and
on the other that of a leaf-shaped Sword of bronze. Those pieces,
says Dr. Evans, were no doubt cast in Umbria, probably in the third
century B.C., but their attribution to Ariminum is at best doubtful.
From the two varieties of Sword appearing on coins of the same type,
the inference may be drawn, either that bronze blades were then being
superseded in Umbria by iron, or that the original type was some sacred
weapon, subsequently conventionalised to represent the article in
ordinary use.
The iron Swords of the Italian tribes are rarely mentioned, and then
cursorily. Diodorus Siculus, for instance, tells us (v. 33) that the
Ligures had blades of ordinary size. They probably adopted the Roman
shape, which had proved itself so serviceable in the field.
[Heading: _THE CELTIBERIAN AND OLD SPANISH SWORD._]
[Illustration: FIG. 286.—BLADE AND HANDLE OF BRONZE WITH PART OF EAGLE
(Kessel).]
Proceeding further westward we find Diodorus Siculus (v. cap. 33)
dwelling upon the Celtiberian weapons.[945] ‘They had two-edged Swords
of well-tempered steel; besides their daggers, a span long, to be used
at close quarters. They make weapons and iron in an admirable manner,
for they bury their plates so long underground as is necessary to eat
away the weaker part; and, therefore, they use only that which is firm
and strong. Swords and other weapons are made of this prepared steel;
and these are so powerful in cutting, that neither shield nor helm nor
bone can withstand them.’ Plutarch[946] repeats this description, which
embodies the still prevalent idea concerning the Damascus (Persian)
scymitar and the Toledo rapier. Swedenborg[947] introduces burial
among the different methods of making steel; and Beckmann, following
Thunberg, declares that the process is still used in Japan.
General A. Pitt-Rivers’ collection has two Swords from Spain. The
first is a bronze, sub-leaf-shaped, with a thin protracted point. The
length is twenty-one inches; the breadth at the swell two inches,
thinning near the handle to one inch and a quarter; the tang is broken,
and there are two rivet-holes at the shoulder, which is two inches
wide. The other, which the owner calls a ‘Kopis,’ also twenty-one
inches long, and two inches and a half in width, has a broad back and
a wedge-section. The cutting part is inside, and the whole contour
remarkably resembles the Kukkri or Korah of Nepaul, and, in a less
degree, the Albanian Yataghan and the Kabyle ‘Flissa.’ The Kopis,
however, has a hook-handle as if for suspension; and there is a
swelling in the inside of the grip.
‘As the Celtiberians,’ continues Diodorus, ‘are furnished with two
Swords,’ (probably _espada y daga_), ‘the horsemen, when they have
routed their opponents, dismount, and, joining the foot, fight as its
auxiliaries.’ The Lusitanians, most valiant of the race, inhabited
a mountain-land peculiarly rich in minerals. Justin[948] speaks of
the gold, copper, lead, and vermilion, which last named the ‘Minho’
river. Of the iron he says: ‘It is of an extraordinary quality, but
their water is more powerful than the iron itself; for the metal being
tempered in it becomes keener; nor is any weapon held in esteem among
them that has not been dipt in the Bilbilis or the Chalybs.’[949]
Strabo[950] represents Iberia as abounding in metal, and arms the
Lusitanians with poniard and dagger, probably meaning dirk and knife.
[Heading: _THE SWORD OF THE OLD GAULS._]
[Illustration: FIG. 287.—GALLIC SWORD OF BRONZE (Jähns).]
The Northern neighbours of the Celtiberians—the warlike old Keltic[951]
Gauls—were essentially swordsmen: they relied mainly upon the
Claidab.[952] When they entered Europe they had already left behind
them the Age of Stone; and they made their blades of copper, bronze,
and iron. The latter, as we learn from history, entered into use during
the fourth or fifth century B.C., the later Celtic Period, as it is
called by Mr. Franks. The material appears to have been, according to
all authorities, very poor and mean. The blade was mostly two-edged,
about one mètre long, thin, straight, and without point (_sine
mucrone_); it had a tang for the attachment of the grip, but no guard
or defence for the hand.
Yet their gallantry enabled the Gauls to do good work with these bad
tools. F. Camillus, the dictator,[953] seeing that his enemy cut mostly
at head and shoulders, made his Romans wear light helmets, whereby the
Machairæ-blades were bent, blunted, or broken. Also, the Roman shield
being of wood, he ‘directed it for the same reason to be bordered with
a thin plate of brass’ (copper, bronze?). He also taught his men to
handle long pikes, which they could thrust under the enemy’s weapons.
Dionysius Halicarnassus introduces him saying, while he compares Roman
and Gaulish arms, that these Kelts assail the foe only with long
lances and large knives (μάχαιρας κοπίδες)[954] of sabre shape (?).
This was shortly before his defeating and destroying Brennus and the
Senonian[955] Gauls, who had worsted the Romans (B.C. 390) on the fatal
_dies Alliensis_,[956] and who had captured all the capital save the
Capitol.
The Gauls of Cæsar’s day[957] had large iron mines which they worked
by tunnelling; their ship-bolts were of the same material, and they
made even chain-cables of iron. They had by no means, however,
abandoned the use of bronze arms. Pausanias[958] also speaks of
ταῖς μαχαίραις τῶν Γαλατῶν. Diodorus[959] notes that the Kelts wore
‘instead of short straight Swords (ξίφους), long broad blades (μάκρας
σπάθας[960]), which they bore obliquely at the right side hung by iron
and copper chains.... Their Swords are not smaller than the Saunions
(σαυνίων[961]) of other nations, and the points of their Saunions are
bigger than those of their Swords.’ Strabo[962] also makes the Gauls
wear their long Swords hanging to the right. Procopius,[963] on the
other hand, notices that the Gallic auxiliaries of Rome wore the Sword
on the left.[964] According to Poseidonius,[965] the Gauls also carried
a dagger which served the purpose of a knife, and this may have caused
some confusion in the descriptions.
Q. Claudius Quadrigarius in Aulus Gellius,[966] noticing the
‘monomachy’ of Manlius Torquatus with the Gaul, declares that the
latter was armed with two gladii. Livy describes the same duel in
his best style. The Roman, of middling stature and unostentatious
bearing, takes a footman’s shield and girds on a Spanish Spatha—arms
fit for ready use rather than show. The big Gaul, another Goliah,
glittering in a vest of many colours, and in armour stained and inlaid
with gold, shows barbarous exultation, and thrusts out his tongue in
childish mockery. The friends retire and leave the two in the middle
space, ‘more after the manner of a theatrical show than according
to the law of combat.’ The enormous Northerner, like a huge mass
threatening to crush what was beneath it, stretched forth his shield
with his left hand and planted an ineffectual cut of the Sword with
loud noise upon the armour of the advancing foe. The Southron, raising
his Sword-point, after pushing aside the lower part of the enemy’s
shield with his own, closed in, insinuating his whole body between
the trunk and arms of his adversary, and by two thrusts, delivered
almost simultaneously at belly and groin, threw his opponent, who when
prostrate covered a vast extent of ground. The gallant victor offered
no indignity to the corpse beyond despoiling it of the _torques_,
which, though smeared with blood, he cast around his neck.
Polybius,[967] recounting the battle at Pisæ, where Aneroestes,
king of the Gæsatæ,[968] aided by the Boii, the Insubres, and the
Taurisci (Noricans, Styrians), was defeated by C. Atilius (A.U.C. 529
= B.C. 225), shows the superiority of the Roman weapons. He describes
the Machairæ of the Gauls ‘as merely cutting blades ... altogether
pointless, and fit only to slash from a distance downwards: these
weapons by their construction soon wax blunt, and are bent and bowed;
so that a second blow cannot be delivered until they are straightened
by the foot.’ The same excellent author,[969] when describing the
battle of Cannæ (B.C. 216), tells us that Hannibal and his Africans
were armed like Romans, with the spoils of the preceding actions; while
the Spanish and Gaulish auxiliaries had the same kind of shield, but
their Swords were wholly unequal and dissimilar. While the Spanish
Xiphos was excellent both for cutting and thrusting, the long and
pointless Gallic Machæra could only slash from afar. Livy[970] also
notices the want of point and the bending of the soft and ill-tempered
Keltic blades.
When Lucius Manlius attacked the Gauls, B.C. 181, the latter carried
long flat shields, too narrow to protect the body.[971] They were
soon left without other weapons but their Swords, and these they had
no opportunity of using, as the enemy did not come to close quarters.
Phrensied with the smart of missiles raining upon their large persons,
the wounds appearing the more terrible from the black blood contrasting
with the white skin; and furious with shame at being put _hors de
combat_ by hurts apparently so small, they lost many by the Swords of
the Velites. These ‘light bobs’ in those days were well armed; they
had shields three feet long, _pila_ for skirmishing, and the _Gladius
Hispanus_, which they drew after shifting the javelins to the left
hand. With these handy blades they rushed in and wounded faces and
breasts, whilst the Gallic Swords could not be wielded without space.
Passing from books to monuments, we see on an Urban medal of Rimini,
dating from the domination of the Senones, a long-haired and
moustachio’d Gaul, and on the reverse a broad Spatha, with scabbard and
chain. This is repeated on another coin of the same series, where a
naked Gaul, protected by an oblong shield, assails with the same kind
of Sword. A third shows the Gaul with two _gladii_, one shorter than
the other.[972] The scabbards and chains were of bronze or iron.
According to Diodorus,[973] the Gauls advanced to battle in
war-chariots (_carpentum_, _covinus_, _essedum_). They also had
cavalry;[974] but during their invasions of Italy they mostly fought
on foot. They had various kinds of missiles, javelins, and the Cateia
or Caia (boomerang, or throwing-club), slings, and bows and arrows,
poisoned as well as unpoisoned. They then rushed to the attack with
unhelm’d heads, and their long locks knotted on the head-top. In many
fights they stripped themselves, probably for bravado, preserving only
the waistcloth and ornaments, torques, leglets, and armlets. They
cut off the heads of the fallen foes; slung them to their shields or
saddlebows, and kept them at home as trophies, still the practice
of the Dark Continent. Their girls and women fought as bravely as
the men; especially with the _contus_ or wooden pike, sharpened and
fire-hardened. The waggons ranged in the rear formed a highly efficient
‘lager.’ The large Keltic stature, their terrible war-cries, and their
long Swords wielded by doughty arms and backed by stout hearts, enabled
them more than once to triumph over civilised armies.
Divus Cæsar, who is severe upon Gallic _nobilitas_, _levitas_, and
_infirmitas animi_, employed nine years in subduing Gaul (B.C. 59–50).
Before a century elapsed, the people had given up their old barbarous
habits and costume, their fur-coats, like the Slav and Afghan _postín_,
with sleeves opening in front; their saga-cloaks or tartan-plaids[975]
which were probably imitations of the primæval tattoo;[976] their
copper torques and their rude chains and armlets. Gallia Comata
shore her limed and flowing locks, and Gallia Bracchata (Provincia,
Provence) doffed the ‘_truis_’ (trews or trowsers) which were strapped
at the waist and tied in at the ankles.[977] Their women adopted Roman
fashions, and forgot all that Ammianus Marcellinus had said of them:
‘A whole troop of foreigners could not withstand a single Gaul, if
he called to aid his wife, who is usually very strong and blue-eyed,
especially when, swelling her neck, gnashing her teeth, and whirling
her sallow arms of enormous bulk, she begins to strike blows, mingled
with kicks, as if they were so many missiles sent from the string of a
catapult.’ Of their old and rugged virtue we may judge by the tale of
Ortiagon’s gallant wife and the caitiff centurion.[978] Thus Gaul was
thoroughly subdued by Roman civilisation and the Latin tongue; she
contributed to literature her quotum of poets and rhetoricians; her
cities established schools of philosophy, and she saw nothing to envy
in Gallia Togata—Upper Italy.[979]
[Heading: _THE OLD GERMAN SWORD._]
[Illustration: FIG. 288.—FOUND AT AUGSBURG (66 centimètres long. In
Sigmaringen Museum).]
The Alemanni or Germans (Germani) cast of the Rhine inhabited, at the
time of the Roman conquests, a dismal land of swamps and _silvæ_: even
in the present day a run from Hamburg to Berlin explains the ancient
exodus of tribes bent upon conquering the ‘promised lands’ of the
south, and the modern wholesale emigration to America. These ‘warmen’
were formerly surpassed by the Gauls in bravery,[980] but they had
none of the Keltic levity or instability. The national characteristic
was and is the steadfast purpose. Till lately the German Empire was
a shadowy tradition; yet the Germans managed to occupy every throne
in Europe save two. They never yet made a colony, yet cuckoo-like
they hold the best of those made by others; and their sound physical
constitution, strengthened by gymnastics, enables them to resist
tropical and extreme climates better than any European people save the
Slavs and the Jews. In the great cities of the world they occupy the
first commercial place, the result of an education carefully adapted to
its end and object; and their progress in late years seems to promise
‘Germanism’ an immense future based upon the ruins of the neo-Latin
races.
We have the authority of Tacitus for the fact that the Germans of his
day did not (like the Kelts)[981] affect the short straight sword:
‘rari ... gladiis utuntur.’[982] The national weapon was the spear[983]
of a peculiar kind; ‘hastas vel ipsorum vocabulo frameas gerunt angusto
et brevi ferro.’ The derivation of the word and the nature of the
weapon are still undetermined.[984] Modern authorities hold the oldest
_framée_ to have been a long spear, with a head of stone, copper,
bronze, or iron, shaped like a Palstab or an expanding ‘Celt;’ and
Demmin[985] shows the same broad shovel-shaped base in the Abyssinian
lance. It was either thrown or thrust, and the weapon must not be
confounded with the enormous _hastæ_ of Tacitus,[986] in whose day the
Roman spear was fourteen feet long. It was a formidable weapon; those
who knew it spoke with awe of ‘illam cruentam victricemque frameam’;
and the Germans long preserved the saying ‘one spear is worth two
Swords.’ Yet, strange to say, it is rarely found in graves, where the
throwing-axe of stone and bronze, pierced or unpierced, one-edged or
two-headed (πέλεκυς ἀμφιστόμος, bipennis), is so common.
[Illustration: FIG. 289.—BRONZE.
75 centimètres long; Pommels of bronze and bone. From Hallstadt
Diggings.]
In time the word _framea_ was apparently applied to wholly different
weapons. Thus Augustinus makes it an equivalent of _spatha_ or
_rhomphaia_; and Johannes de Janua (‘Glossary’) explains it as ‘glaive
aigu d’une part, et d’autre espée.’
Iron, according to Tacitus,[987] was known to the Germans, but was not
common. His statement is supported by ‘finds’ in the old tumuli and
stone rings, known as Riesenmauer, Hünnenringe,[988] Teufelsgraben,
Burgwälle, and others. The myths of giants, dwarfs, and serpents
suggest an Eastern origin for the metal. Bronze blades, on the other
hand, are common. A typical specimen from the Elbe valley in the Klemm
collection is thus described by Jähns.[989] The whole weapon is 23·25
centimètres long, the blade being 18·5, with a maximum breadth of
1·625. The shape is conical, tapering to the point; a high and rounded
mid-rib is subtended on either side by a deepened line which runs to
the end. Between shoulders and blade the front view shows on either
side a crescent-shaped notch. The grip is narrower at the middle, where
there is a long oval slit for making fast the handle; and there are
two rivet holes on either side of the shoulders, whence the mid-rib
springs. It shows no pommel, the place being taken by a shallow crutch.
Iron Swords are rare: even in the second century B.C., when the Romans
had given up the softer metal, the Gauls and Germans preserved it. This
is especially noticed when Germanicus marched against Arminius, B.C.
15;[990] and as late as the days of Tacitus, Germany could not work the
raw metal.[991] Remains of iron _Spathæ_ have mostly been found in very
bad condition; the material also is poor and badly made. The Held or
champion used two kinds of blades; and the mètre-long two-edged German
Sword is not to be distinguished from that of the Kelts. The Spatha
was especially affected by three tribes: the Suardones (Sworders?),
the Saxones (Daggermen)[992] and the Cherusci; in process of time it
reached the Goths,[993] and at last _wafan_ (weapon) applied only
to the Sword. The blade (_blat_, _blan_, in Mid. Germ. _valz_), with
its two edges (_ecke_, _egge_), was often leaf-shaped, as if copied
directly from the bronze Sword. Others were smaller in the middle than
at heft or point, for facility of unsheathing. The tang reached the
pommel end, and the grip or hilt[994] was lined with wood (birch or
beech), bone, and other material, covered with leather, fishskin, and
cloth. There was no cross-bar, but the crescent extending over the
shoulders, and serving to contain the rivets, was sometimes supplied
with a guard-plate (_die Leiste_).[995] The weapon had a solid
scabbard, often of iron, even when the blade was bronze, and was hung
by riems or leathern straps to the warrior’s left.
[Illustration: FIG. 290.—THE SPATHA OF SCHLESWIG.]
[Illustration: FIG. 291.—SHORT KELTIC SWORD. 40 centimètres long. Iron
blade, bronze grip. From Hallstadt. (Vienna Cabinet of Antiquities.)]
The other German blade was single-edged and curved: it was a
semi-Spatha, half the size of the Spatha, and it hung to the warrior’s
right side. This weapon was probably the Sahs,[996] Seax, Sax, the
favourite of the Saxons; also called Breitsachs and Knief (knife), and
at later times, _scramasaxus_, Scramasax.[997] A large iron knife, with
a yataghan curve, it was used either as a dirk or a missile. Some of
these throw-Swords had a hook by way of pommel for better securing
the hilt. The Schwertstab (Sword-staff) or Prachtaxt is described and
figured by Jähns[998] as a kind of _dolch_[999] or dagger, attached
to a long hollow metal haft, like that of a Persian war-axe. It is a
rare article, and its rarity leads him to believe it was symbolic of
the Saxnot (Sword-god) Zio, Tui, or Tuisco. Dr. Evans[1000] considers
the weapon ‘a kind of halberd or battle-axe;’ others, a commander’s
staff or _bâton_ of honour; but the article is too widely used to be so
explained. A fine specimen of the Schwertstab with handle and blade of
bronze, was found at Årup in Scania, and an analogous form is shown in
a Chinese blade.
History, even written by their enemies, shows that the Ancient Germans
were an eminently military and martial people. The bridal present
consisted of a caparisoned horse, a shield, a spear, and a Sword. At
their festivals, youths danced naked before the Sword-god, amidst
drawn blades and couched spears. Their lives were spent in hunting and
warfare. Despite their barbarism, a thorough topographical knowledge of
their bogs and bushes, mountains and forests, enabled them to inflict
more than one crushing defeat upon the civilised Romans.
The highly-developed Teutonic brain also invented a form of attack
which suited them thoroughly. It was theirs, as the Phalanx, borrowed
from the Egyptians, became Greek, and its legitimate outcome, the
Legion, was Roman; and, subsequently, the Crescent, adopted by
the Kafirs, was Moslem. ‘Acies,’ says Tacitus,[1001] ‘per cuneos
componitur.’ The Keil or Wedge was not unknown to the Greeks and
Romans;[1002] but they used it subordinately, whilst with the Germans
the ‘Schweinskopf,’ the ‘Svinfylking’ of the Scandinavians, was
national: they attributed its invention to Odin, the country god. The
apex was composed of a single file,[1003] and the numbers doubled in
each line to the base; while families and tribesmen, ranged side by
side, added moral cohesion to the tactical formation.[1004] It lasted
a thousand years; and it played a conspicuous part in the Battle of
Hastings, where the Normans attacked in wedge, and finally at Swiss
Sempach. During its long life it underwent sundry modifications,
especially the furnishing of the flanks with skirmishers; evidently
the Wedge was admirable for the general advance against line or even
column; but it was equally ill-calculated for a retreat.
Most writers now consider the Cimbri a Keltic people, and possibly
congeners of the Cymry or Welsh. Yet in the second century B.C. we find
them uniting, as Pliny tells us,[1005] with the German Teutones or
Teutoni (Thiudiskô, Teutsh, Deutsch). The ‘Kimpers’ of Italian Recoaro,
the supposed descendants of the invaders who escaped the Sword of
Marius (B.C. 102), undoubtedly spoke German.
[Illustration: FIG. 292.—DANISH SWORD.
(Bronze; 85 centimètres long. Copenhagen.)]
Plutarch[1006] describes the Cimbrian Sword as a large heavy
knife-blade (μεγάλαις ἐχρώντο καὶ βαρείαις μαχαίραις), They had also
battle-axes, and sharp, bright _degans_ or daggers: the latter were
highly prized, and their cuneiform shape caused them to be considered
symbols of the deity,[1007] As usual amongst barbarians, the weapons
of the chiefs had terrible names, so as to strike even the hearer with
fear.[1008] Their defensive weapons were iron helmets, mail coats, and
white glittering shields. Eccart holds that these arms and armour must
have been taken from the foe: their barrows, in Holstein and elsewhere,
having produced only stone-celts and spear-heads with a few copper
Sword-blades, but no iron.
The Scandinavian Goths (Getæ) and Vandals were held by the ancients to
have been originally one and the same people.[1009] Their Bronze Age is
supposed to have begun about B.C. 1000, and to have ended in Sweden at
the opening of the Christian era. They used short Sword-blades, which
made them, unlike the Kelts, formidable in close combat, and the Goths
claimed to have introduced the spear[1010] to cavalrymen. Identical
weapons were used by the Lemovii of Pomerania and their kinsmen the
Rugii. The latter lived on the southern shores of the Baltic about
Rugenwald, and this place, one of the focuses of the Stone Age,[1011]
preserves, like the Isle of Rugen, the old barbaric name. The Danes
mostly affected the long-handed _securis Danica_ (_hasche Danoise_).
The Fenni (Finns) of Tacitus had neither Swords nor iron: they used
only bows and stone-tipped arrows.[1012] The bronze Sword from Finland
‘with flanged hilt-plate and eight rivet-holes,’[1013] must have found
its way there.[1014]
[Heading: _THE OLD BRITISH SWORD._]
We now proceed to the Keltic population of the ‘Home Islands of Great
Britain,’ and find there evident offshoots of the Gauls. We have
no metal remains of the pre-Keltic ‘aborigines’ (Iberians? Basques?
Finns?) except their palæoliths; and the history of our finds commences
with the two distinct Keltic immigrations advocated by Professor Rhys,
the Goidels (Gauls) who named Calyddon or Caledonia (_Gael doine_ or
_Gael dun_ = forest district) and the Brythons.
The authentic annals of England, says Mr. Elton[1015] begin with the
days of Alexander the Great, that is, in the fourth century B.C.; the
next historical station being the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons[1016] in
the middle of the fifth century A.D. He does not trace any continuity
of race in Kelt or Saxon with the palæolithic men of the Quaternary
Age, or with the short dark-skinned neolithics who succeeded them. The
two were followed by a big-boned, round-headed, fair-haired family
which brought with them a knowledge of bronze and with it the Sword.
Colonel A. Lane-Fox has summarised the four principal theories[1017]
concerning the source of bronze in Great Britain. Dr. Evans[1018]
prudently finds ‘a certain amount of truth embodied in each of those
opinions’; but he also concludes that No. 4 must commend itself to
all archæologists. I quite agree with this view, provided that the
common centre be Egypt, and that Western Asia be held only a line of
transit. We have full proof of the immense antiquity of bronze in the
Nile region, whence the art would radiate through the world. But the
almost identical proportions of the alloy (nine copper to one tin) and
the persistent forms suggest that a wandering race of metal-workers,
somewhat like the Gypsies of a later age, are the originators of the
_Stations_, the _Fonderies_, and the _Trésors_. The first step from
Egypt would be to Khita-land and Phœnicia; and these ‘Englishmen of
Antiquity’ would carry the art far and wide. Sir J. Lubbock opines that
the Phœnicians were acquainted with the mineral fields of Cornwall
between B.C. 1500–1200; somewhat niggard measure, for the Bronze Age in
Switzerland is dated from B.C. 3000. On the other hand, Professor Rhys
absolutely denies that there are any traces of Phœnician art in England.
Dr. Evans[1019] assumes the total duration of the Bronze Period in
Britain at between eight and ten centuries. He would divide this sum
into three several stages,[1020] and to the last, which produced the
bronze Sword, he assigns a minimum duration of four hundred to five
hundred years. This was followed by the Early Iron Age, or later Keltic
Period. The metal may have been used in southern Britain, peopled long
before Cæsar’s time by immigrant Belgii, not later than the fourth or
fifth century B.C., the approximate date of the earliest iron Swords in
Gaul.[1021] Lastly, by the second or third century B.C. the exclusive
use of bronze for cutting implements had practically ceased in Belgic
Britain; the Roman historians do not lead us to suppose that the
weapons, even of the northern Britons, were anything but iron.
It has been suggested that the bronze Swords found in Britain were
either Roman, or at all events of Roman date. The discussion began
as early as 1751,[1022] on the occasion of some bronze blades, a
spear-head, and other objects being discovered near Gannat, in the
Bourbonnais. It opened with greater vigour between the German and
Scandinavian antiquaries in 1860, and the late Thomas Wright was
an ardent advocate of the ‘Italian view.’[1023] Dr. Evans, who has
carefully considered the question, concludes:[1024] ‘The whole weight
of the argument is in favour of a pre-Roman origin for these swords in
western and northern Europe.’ And he notices, apparently with scant
respect, the three provinces to which the bronze antiques of Europe
have been assigned. These are the Mediterranean with Græco-Italic
and Helveto-Gallic subdivisions; the Danubian, including Hungary,
Scandinavia, Germany, and Britain; and the Uralian, comprising the
Russian, Siberian, and Finn regions. Finally he quotes the bronze
socketed sickle, the tanged razor, the two forms of Sword, the shield
with numerous concentric rings, with sundry other articles specially
British, to show that Britain was one of the great centres of the
bronze industry.
Lead-bronze, well known in ancient Egypt, is found extensively in
Ireland, where some specimens of ‘Dowris metal’ have as much as 9·11
parts in 99·32.[1025] The Phœnicians would certainly teach the use of
an article which takes a fine golden lustre. Dr. Evans[1026] notes the
remarkable prevalence of lead in the small (votive) socketed celts
supplied by Brittany. Professor Pelligot found some of them containing
28·50 per cent. and even 32·50 per cent. of lead, with only 1·5 per
cent., or a smaller proportion, of tin. In others, with a large
percentage of tin there was from eight to sixteen per cent. of lead.
Some of the bronze ornaments of the opening Iron Period also contain a
considerable proportion of lead; in the early Roman _As_ and its parts
the figures are from twenty to thirty per cent. A socketed celt from
Yorkshire gives, copper 81·15, tin 12·30, and lead 2·63 per cent. In
this case, Mr. J. A. Phillips expresses an opinion that ‘the lead is,
no doubt, an intentional ingredient.’[1027]
Apparently the Roman invaders unduly depreciated the ancient Britons.
Strabo[1028] declares them to be cannibals; yet he includes amongst
their produce gold, silver, iron, and corn. Cæsar[1029] makes them use
the ring money of Egypt, but Dr. Evans[1030] has proved that England
had a gold coinage in the first century B.C. It is an old remark
that a people can hardly be savages when they employ the _currus
falcatus_ or scythe war-car, the ᵹꞃıom carbad or ‘Carbad scarrda’ of
the Irish, the Welsh _kerbyd_, borrowed from the Gallic Kelts.[1031]
Pomponius Mela also assures us that they had cavalry, besides _bigæ_
and _currus_.[1032] Their works in glass, ivory, and jet, and their
incense cups suggest extensive intercourse, commercial and social, with
the Continent. During the ninety years which separated Julius Cæsar
and Claudius, the Britons had made progress in letters, and had built
important towns. The amount of Latin blood introduced into England has,
perhaps, been undervalued by our writers; but the discovery of Roman
ruins, which rapidly proceeds and succeeds, will draw the attention of
the statistician, and that ‘new man, the anthropologist,’ to a highly
interesting subject.[1033]
The bronze Swords of the ancient Britons are of two kinds: the
leaf-blade and the Rapier, both well cast. The total length of the
former is about two feet, the extremes being sixteen inches to thirty,
and in rare cases more. The blades are uniformly rounded, but with the
part next the edge slightly drawn down so as to form a shallow fluting.
The breadth appears greatest at the third near the point, and this
would add to the facility of unsheathing. In almost all cases they
are strengthened by a rounded mid-rib more or less bold; or they show
ridges, with and without beading, or parallel lines that run along the
whole blade or the greater part near the edges. Some combine mid-rib
and ridges. The shoulders are either plain, notched, or flanged. In
rare instances the outer part of the hilt is of bronze: Dr. Evans
engraves[1034] a specimen of this kind. The total length of the weapon
is twenty-one inches, of which the globular pommel and the grip, made
for a large hand, occupy five. The hilt has the appearance of being
cast upon the blade: it seems to have been formed of bronze of the same
character, and there are no rivets by which the two castings could be
attached. The shallow crescent, whose hollow faces the mid-rib (fig.
293), is a characteristic feature, and endures for ages in the northern
bronzes.
[Illustration: FIG. 293.—BRITISH SWORD, BRONZE. (Tower.)]
The handle of the leaf-blade usually consisted of plates of horn,
bone, or wood, riveted on either side of the hilt plate. The latter
differs considerably in form, and in the number and arrangement of
the rivets, by which the covering material was attached. Some have as
many as thirteen piercings; they seldom, however, exceed seven. The
apertures are either round holes or longitudinal slots of greater or
lesser extent. There is a pronounced swelling in the grip when the tang
is of full length. At the end it expands, evidently for the purpose of
receiving a pommel formed by the material of the hilt. This tang end is
a fish-tail more or less pronounced. One illustrated by Dr. Evans[1035]
has two spirals attached to the base of the hilt, a rare form in
England, but common in Scandinavia. Another[1036] pommel-end has a
distinct casting, ‘and is very remarkable on account of the two curved
horns extending from it, which are somewhat trumpet-mouthed, with a
projecting cone in the centre of each.’ This manilla-end appears to me
Irish.
We have seen the rapier in Mycenæ and Etruria.[1037] It reappears in
northern Europe, England, and France, perfectly shaped; and, though
of rare occurrence in hoards, it seems to belong to the period when
socketed celts were in use. There is no difficulty in tracing the
intermediate steps between the leaf-shaped dagger and the rapier. The
latter measures from twenty to twenty-three and a half, and even thirty
and a quarter inches, with a breadth of five-eighths inch, widening at
the base to two and three-eighths to two and nine-sixteenths inches.
The largest have a strong projecting mid-rib, while their weight is
diminished by flutings along either side. Another form of blade is more
like a bayonet, showing a section nearly square; while a third has a
flat surface where the mid-rib would be, a form not yet obsolete. Few
are tanged;[1038] mostly we find the base or shoulders of the blade
provided with drill-holes or with notches, to admit the nails; and in
some the wings are broadened for this purpose.[1039]
During the Late Celtic Period the Britons, like the Gauls, were armed
with _gladii sine mucrone_, which Tacitus[1040] calls _ingentes_ and
_enormes_, These Spathæ must have grown out of the bronze rapier. A
monument found in London and preserved at Oxford shows the blade to
have been between three and four feet long.[1041]
All history declares the Ancient Britons to have been of right warlike
race; and Solinus[1042] relates of them a characteristic trait. ‘When a
woman is delivered of a male child, she places its first food upon the
father’s Sword, and gently puts it to the little one’s mouth, praying
to her country gods that its death may be, in like manner, amidst arms.’
The ancient Irish seem to have been rather savages than barbarians,
amongst whom the wild non-Celts long prevailed over the Goidels or
Gaels. Ptolemy calls the former _Ivernii_, and it has been lately
suggested[1043] that this may have been the racial name throughout the
British Islands. The same savage element, which is still persistent,
was noticed by Tasso, when speaking of the Hibernian crusaders:
Questi dall’ alte selve irsuti manda
La divisa del mondo ultima Irlanda.[1044]
The modern Irish, who in historical falsification certainly rival, if
they do not excel, the Hindús, claim for their ancestry an exalted
grade of culture. They found their pretensions upon illuminated
manuscripts and similar works of high art; but it is far easier to
account for these triumphs as the exceptional labours of students who
wandered to the classic regions about the Mediterranean. If ancient
Ireland ever was anything but savage, where, let us ask, are the ruins
that show any sign of civilisation? A people of artists does not pig in
wooden shanties, surrounded by a rude vallum of earth-work.
Ireland, like modern Central Africa, would receive all her civilised
weapons from her neighbours. The Picts of Scotland would transmit a
knowledge of iron-working and of the Sword to the Scotti or Picts of
the north-east of Hibernia.[1045] This is made evident by the names
of the articles. Claiꝺeam or claiꝺim, the Welsh _kledyv_, is simply
_gladius_; and ꞇuca is ‘tuck’ or a clerk’s Sword. So lann, the lance
head, derives from the Gaulish spear (_lanskei_) which Diodorus Siculus
terms λαγκία, a congener of the Greek λόγχη and of the low Latin
_lancea_ or _lanscea_, meaning either spear (_hasta_) or Sword.
CONCLUSION.
We have now assisted at the birth of the Sword in the shape of a bit
of wood, charred and sharpened. We have seen its several stages of
youth and growth to bone and stone, to copper and bronze, to iron and
steel. When it had sufficiently developed itself Egypt gave it a name,
SFET; and this name, at least fifty centuries old, still clings to it
and will cling to it. In the hands of the old Nilotes the Sword spread
culture and civilisation throughout adjoining Africa and Western Asia.
The Phœnicians carried it wide and side over the world then known to
man. The Greeks won with it their liberty and developed with it their
citizenship. Wielded by the Romans, it enthroned the Reign of Law, and
laid the foundation for the Brotherhood of Mankind. Thus, though it
soaked earth with the blood of her sons, the Sword has ever been true
to its mission—the Progress of Society.
In Part II. we shall see the Sword attain the prime of life, when no
genius, no work of art was too precious to adorn it; and when, from
a weapon of offence, it developed exceptional defensive powers. Here
begins the Romance of the Sword.
INDEX.
Abderites, 212
Abella, sword and shield of the people of, 264 _n_
Abraham and the Egyptians, 103;
his origin, 150 _n_
Abyssinia, native copper from, 63 _n_
Abyssinian lance, 270
— Sword, 163 _sq._, 237
_Acacia detinens_ (‘Wait-a-bit’), 6
_Acanthurus_ (‘surgeon’ or lancet-fish), 10
Accad inscription (Babylonia), 199
Accensi Velati (Roman soldiers), 245
Achæans of the Caucasus, 195 _n_
Achæmenes, 208
Achilles’ shield, 212, 223
— spear pointed with chalcos, 55 _n_
‘Acies instructa’ and ‘sinuata’ (Roman army), 245
Acies (of a weapon), 107 _n_
Acinaces, not a scymitar, 227 _n_
Acinaces, Persian, 210;
with golden ornaments, 212
Aclys (archaic weapon), 35 _n_
‘Adaga’ of mediæval writers, 12
Adam Kadmon, 2
Adam primus, 2 _n_
Adam, the Hebrew, 149
Adámas (steel), 221
Adargue (Moorish), 12 _n_
Adder-pike or sting-fish (_Trachinus vipera_), 11
Adonis (= Tammuz), 187
Adscriptii (Roman soldiers), 245 _n_
Adze, 20 _n_;
of copper, 67
— blades of shells and pinna, 47
Æs corinthiacum, 85 _n_;
ægineticum, 87;
demonnesium, _ib._;
nigrum, _ib._;
deliacum, _ib._;
caldarium, 88;
græcanicum, _ib._
Ægyptus (meaning of the word in Homer), 145 _n_
Æolipylæ (αἰόλου πύλαι), 31 _n_
Ærugo (or verdigris) from a spear (Achilles’), 60
_Æs_ and _Æris metalla_ (their meaning in Pliny), 58 _n_
Afghan Charay, 212
— language, 210 _n_
Africa (its mineral wealth unexplored), 63
— the Sword in, 162
African antelopes, 9
— bellows, 120 _sq._
— Telak (arm-knife), 162
Africo-Arab weapons, 163
‘Afterthought,’ 1
Afzal Khan (Moslem General of Aurangzeb), 8
Agate splinter (for wooden Swords), 47
Agave (American), 6;
used for paper-making, 50 _n_
‘Age of Wood’, 31
‘Ages’, 22 _n_
Agesilaus, army of, 241
Ἀγκύλη (Greek throw-stick), 34
‘Agmen pilatum’ and ‘quadratum’ (Roman army), 245
Agreutic (age of primitive Archæology), 5 _n_
Agriculture in Ancient Egypt, 148
Ahasuerus (= Xerxes), 210
Airain (derivation), 84
Aji (black stone), Japanese use of, for weapons, 52
Aka, Akhu (Ancient Egyptian axe), 89, 158
Akkad (= Upper Babylonia), 104 _n_
Ἀκινάκης, 90 _n_
Alabaster pommels at Mycenæ, 231, 233
Albanian castes, 241 _n_
— yataghan, 265
Alemanni (Germani), weapons of the, 270
Alexander the Great, 209
Alfânge (Iberian; El-Khanjar), 29
Algebra in Assyria, 202 _n_
Alipes (Mercury), 1
Alkinde (Ondanique), 110
Alle-barde (Teutonic weapon), 92
Allophyllian or Agglutinative Turanian, 146
Alloy (derivation of the word), 74 _n_
Alloys of copper, 53, 57
— proportions of, 83;
table of alloys in common use, 83 _sq._
Aloe (Socotrine), 6
Alorus, king of Babylonia, 199
Aluminium, 81 _n_
Alyattes, tomb of, 194
Alphabet (whence it came), 51 _n_, 147
— Hindú, 219 _n_
— of Troy, 193
Amber, 48, 87
Ambidexter Swordsmen, 185
Ambrum (= amber), 87
American broad-axe, 128
Amestris (= Esther), 210 _n_
Amphictyony of the Ionians, 194
Amukta (class of weapons: Hindú), 214
Amun Ra, 149 _n_
Amygdaloid greenstone (‘toad-stone’), 103 _n_
Analysis of a copper knife-blade, 69;
of so-called ‘bronzes,’ 70;
of Assyrian bronze, 81
Anchor, the original, 119 _n_
Ancient Britain, centre of bronze industry, 276
— Britons, account of the, 277
— Cypriote characters, 225
— German method of warfare, 273
— Greece, extent of, 242 _n_
— Hellas, metallurgy of, 220
— Indians, 213
— Indian anthropology, 213
— Irish, character of the, 279
— Roman army (its constitution), 245
— Rome (her _rôle_ in history), 244
Ancile (sacred shield) of _æs_, 56
Andahualas valley (meaning of the name), 67 _n_
Andamanese (unable to kindle fire), 2 _n_
Andanicum (Ondanique), 110
Andena (ductile and malleable iron: Avicenna), 107
Andes (derivation of the name), 67
Andromeda legend, the, 180 _n_
Andro-Sphinx (Egypt), 190 _n_
Anelace, 263
Angels, the weapon of the, 237
Angle of cutting instruments, 131 _sq._
— of resistance, 132
Anglo-Saxon invasion of England, 275
‘Anguimanus’ (the elephant), 3 _n_
Animals in Assyrian bas-reliefs, 203
— (lower) born armed, 2
Anjan (iron-wood), 112
Anlas, 263
‘Annæus’ monument, 258 _n_
Annals of Babylon, 200
Anta (copper: Quichua), 67
Antelope (Indian) horns used for daggers, 11
Antelopes’ horns used in fishing, 27;
as lance-points, 28
Antepilani (Roman soldiers), 247 _sq._
Antesignani (Roman soldiers), 247
Anthropology, Ancient Indian, 213
— of the pagans, 21 _sq._
Antimonial bronze, 81 _n_
Antiquity of bronze in the Nile region, 275
— of iron and steel, 98
Antiseptic charcoal, 250 _n_
Antler of red deer as a thrusting-weapon, 28
Anvils, 120
Aor (= Sword, in Homer), 222;
etymology of the word, 224 _n_
Apes, 2
Aphrodite or Venus, account of, 187 _n_
Apis-tombs of Memphis, 190 _n_
Apollo and Python, 180
Apophis (serpent: Egypt), 183
Arabian weapons, 185
Arabic name for sabre, 123
Arab scymitar belonging to King of Kishakkha, 162
Arabs and Egyptians, contrast of, 144
Aram wine, 173 _n_
Ararat of Noah’s ark, the, 202
Arbotana, 14 _n_
Arblast (enlarged _arcus_), 19
Arch, Egyptian, 201
Archæology, primitive, 5 _n_
Archaic names of metals, table of, 122
— tools from Wari Gaon, 110
Archal (= _aurichalcum_), 85 _n_
Archangels (whence borrowed), 149
Archer (fish: _Toxotes_), 7
Archers (Ancient Egyptian army), 154
— Assyrian, 206
— in Homer, 222
Archery, Scythian, 19 _n_
Architects, Ancient Roman, 245
Architecture, Assyrian, 201
— in Ancient Egypt, 148
— in Hellas, 241
— origin of, 15
Arcubalista (crossbow), 19
Argentiferous copper (liquation of, in Japan), 83
— galena, 88
Argus-pheasant (Indian bird), 9
Aries (sea-ram; _Delphinus orca_), 7
Aries-shaped Sword, 141
Ariminium, coins cast in, 265
Arithmetic in Ancient Egypt, 148
Arjuna’s Sword, 217
Arka (_Calatropis gigantea_), 218
Arme blanche, 6
Armes d’hast, 6, 246 _n_
Armenia, 209 _n_
Armenian inscriptions, 200
Armidoctores, 249 _n_
Armilla of bronze, Etruscan, 196
Armlets of bronze (Etruscan), 30
Armorial badges (= rank), 141 _sq._
Armour (derivation of the word), 244
— made in Cyprus, 188
— of Ancient Egyptian soldiers, 152 _sqq._
Armour of elephants, 216
— of Goliath, 186
Arms among the Ancient Romans, 244 _sq._
— and Armour of Ancient Roman soldiers, 246 _sqq._
— manufactory in Etruria, 198
— of Hannibal and his troops, 268
— of the Keltic Gauls, 266 _sq._
— of Persian troops, 210
Army of the Ancient Egyptians, 152 _sqq._
Ἅρπη (sharp sickle), 180
Arrows, 11, 154
— made of reed, 28
Arrow-heads in Ancient Gallic and German graves, 274 _n_
— of deer-horn, 24;
of bone, 25;
of bamboo, 26;
of flint-flakes, _ib._;
of pinna and shells, 47
Arrow-piles of copper, 65
Arrow-throwers (epithet of the Argives), 222
Art and science in Ancient Egypt, 147
Art of the Hittites, 176
‘Artemis’ (Diana) of the Ephesians, 192 _n_
Articulate language (origin of), 74 _n_
Artificial calamine, 86
— malachite, 72
Aryan (language), 146 _n_
Aryans, 76
_Asclepias gigantea_, 111
Asclepius (Berytus), 75
Ashanti Sword-knife, 167
Ashur (Assyrian), 200, 207
Ashuth (fused or cast metal; Hebrew), 103
Asia, ancient mines of copper and lead in, 63
Asidhenu (dagger: Hindú), 215
Asidevatá (Sword-god produced by Brahma), 214
Askelon (site of), 186 _n_
Asp (Cobra di capello; _Coluber Haja_), 33 _n_
Ass (its method of defence), 7
Assegai used as a razor by the Amazulu, 14
Assyria (etymology of the word), 177
Assyrian architecture, 201
— bas-reliefs, 176, 201
— books, 201 _n_
— bronzes, 104 _n_
— daggers, 159, 205
— executioner, 207
— fashion of wearing the Sword, 206, 239
— fortifications, 203
— hand-daggers, 185
— inscriptions (Bayrut), 200 _n_
— invasion of Egypt, 200
— magic, 202 _n_
— metallurgy, 81, 202;
bronze, 81
— names for the Sword, 123
— robe, 175
— skill in arts, 202
— soldiers, 206
— Sphinx, 190 _n_
Assyrians of Xerxes’ army (their weapons), 105
Astrolabe in Assyria, 202 _n_
Astronomy in Ancient Egypt, 148
— of Mesopotamia, 200 _n_
Asuras (mighty demons: Hindú), 213
Atacamite (submuriate of copper), 68
Athenæus on the Sword, 242 _sq._
Athletics, Ancient Roman, 249
Athor or Hathor (‘goddess of copper’), 62, 69
Atlantis, 85 _n_
Attábo, King Blay of, 142
Auctoramentum (pay of the Bestiarii), 253
Augustin’s rendering of ‘framea,’ 271
Aurichalcum, 85
Aurochs, 30 _n_
Australian club (development), 39
Authentic annals of England, beginning of the, 275
Autochthones of Cyprus, 187
Avicenna’s description of iron, 106
Axe (as a weapon), 20, 90 _sq._;
of copper and stone, 67
— (derivation of the word), 91 _n_
Axe-heads of pure copper, 57
Ayri (cutting instruments; Peru), 67
‘Azagay’ (in Spanish and Portuguese), 42 _n_
Azure (in heraldry; derivation), 140 _n_
Baal Suteckh (Hittite War-god), 173
Baal-Zephon, site of, 175 _n_
Babanga (Sword; Gaboon), 165
Babel, Tower of, 55
Baboons, 2
Babylon, conquest of, 209
Babylonia, account of, 199 _sq._;
civilisation in, 200
Babylonian chronology, 199 _n_
Backsword, 123;
Chinese, 64
Bagpipe, origin of the, 120
Báhuyuddha (class of weapons, Hindú), 214
Baïonette Gras, 94, 134
_Balanitis Aegyptiaca_ (= Persea; Egyptian ‘Tree of Life’), 202 _n_
Balawat, bronze gates of, 202
Baldur the Beautiful, 178
Baleares (‘Slinging-Isles’), 19 _n_
Balestarius (= crossbow-man), 185
Balistæ (Roman artillery), 19, 249
_Batistes capriscus_ (‘file-fish’), 9
Ballistics, 16
Balloons, 31 _n_
Ball-steel (Chinese), 114
Bamboo (blades made of), 12, 14 _n_;
arrow-heads, 26
‘Bamboo-grass,’ 12
‘Bantu’ (Folk), 3 _n_
Ban Umha (white copper: Keltic), 65
‘Barbarian,’ history of the word, 261 _n_
Barbarism of the ancient Germans, 273
Bards of Greece, the age of the, 220
Barylithic (glacial Drift) age, 5 _n_
Barrows, Cimbrian (finds in), 274
Barzil (iron: Hebrew), 103
Basalt-splinters for wooden Swords, 47
Basket-hilt of a Sword, 124, 126 _n_
Bas-reliefs of Assyria, 176, 201
— of Khorsabad, 209
— of Persepolis, 209
Baswa knife (Upper Congo), 170
Bâton ferré, 20
Battering-ram, Assyrian, 203
Battle-axe of pure copper, 70
Battle-gear of gold, 212
Battle-scene in sculpture (Cuttack), 216
Bauldric, 206
Beaked axe, 95
Bears, polar, 3
Bechwana club-axe, 93
Bedstead of iron (of Og, King of Bashan), 103
Beheading fallen foes (Gallic custom), 269
Beheading Sword, Cutch, 168
Behistun Inscription, the, 209 _n_, 226
Belagerungs-balister, 19
Belemnites (‘thunder-stone’), 21 _n_
Bel and the Dragon, 180, 183
‘Bell-metal,’ 84
Bellows, invention of, 119
Bellows of bullock’s hide, 111
Bellows-nozzles of copper, 68
Bells on a Sword-sheath, 169
Βέλος, 6
Benipe (meaning of the word), 99, 101
Bent Swords, Javanese, 218
_Beny Adam meshood_, 2
Bergbarthe (mine-picks; German), 91
Berytus (Asclepius), 75
Bestiarii (gladiators), 251, 253
Bhawáni (Sívají’s Sword), 8 _n_
Bibasis (gymnastic dance), 239
Bíchwa (weapon used by Sívají), 8 _n_
Bilbilis (river: Lusitania), 266 _n_
Bil-Kan (Assyrian god), 182
Bill (derivation of the word), 94 _n_
Bill-hooks of copper, 67
Birds (their methods of attack and defence), 9
Bird’s-head-shaped missiles, 37
Birth of literature in Greece, 202 _n_
Bisarme or Guisarme, 95
‘Biscayan’ shape (of Swords), 135
Bitumen used to fix flint-chips in wooden weapons, 49
‘Black chalcos,’ 77
Black Pagoda (Madras), wrought iron in, 109
Black sand, 102
Blade of a Sword, 124
Blasrohr (blow-tube), 14 _n_
Blende (sulphuret of zinc), 84;
derivation of the word, 84 _n_
Bloma ferri, 114 _n_
Bloom (of iron), 114 _n_
Bloomary (= bloomery), 114 _n_
Bloomeries (ancient furnaces), 114 _n_
Blow-pipe, 14;
of copper, 67
Blue basalt, 100
Blue-stone (sulphate of copper, blue copperas), 60
Boars’-hoofs used as armour, 29 _n_
Boar, wild (its method of attack), 12
Boians (Etruria), 196
Bolas (slings), 19
Bombola (birthplace of Martial), 266 _n_
‘Bone Age,’ 23
‘Bone-and-stone-using people,’ 23
Bone as a base to carry trenchant substances, 27
Bone-club of Nootka Sound Indians, 25
Bone-handles for Swords and daggers, 27
Bone-knives, 26;
-daggers, 26, 27
Bone-points to weapons, 23
Boomerang, 19;
derivation of the word, 33 _n_;
Indian specimens, 35;
its movement explained, 35 _sq._
Boomerang-sword, 39;
in Ancient Egypt, 155
Boot (derivation of the word), 175
Borax used for soldering, 85 _n_
Boundaries demarked by the axe, 91
Bouterolles of a Sword, 124 _n_
Bowie-knife bayonet, 134 _n_
Bow (derivation of the word), 19 _n_
— of a Sword, 125
— of Vishnu, the, 213
— the, in Ancient Gaul and Germany, 274 _n_
— and arrow among the Ancient Hindús, 215
Bows and arrows used by the Ancient Romans, 245
Bows, ancient Egyptian, 154
Boxing, 7
‘Boycotting’ St. Paul, 185
Bracchæ (breeches), 269 _n_
Bracelet of copper, 73 _n_
‘Brave Master Shoe-tye, the great traveller’ 3 _n_
Brande or Bronde (Sword), 123
Braquemart, 123
Brass early in Christian era, 84;
derivation of the word, 85
‘Brass’ guns, 56
‘Brass’ in the A. V. of the Bible, 56
Breast-belt, gladiatorial, 253
Breastplates of copper, 68
Breeches (etymology of the word), 269 _n_
Breitsachs (Ancient German weapon), 272
Brennus, 267
Bridal presents of Ancient Germans, 273
Bridle of gold, 212
Brise-épées, 138
Britain (‘Ynis Prydhain’ Island), 77 _n_
British Sword in the Tower, 263
Broad-axe (American squatters’), 128
Broadsword, various forms of, 96, 123
Bronze, 22 _n_, 74 _sqq._
‘Bronze Age,’ 22 _n_, 23 _n_
— Age in Britain, 275
— Age in Switzerland, 275
— Age of Scandinavian Goths, 274
— armlets, Etruscan, 30
— armour, 80
— armour-suit (Roman cavalry), 248
— arms of the Gauls, 267
— arrow-heads, Carthaginian, 181
— casting in, 80
— chisels, 79
— daggers, 78 _n_, 80
— defensive armour (Roman), 254
— derivation of the word, 77
— door-sockets, Assyrian, 202
— hardening of, 53
— hatchets in wooden handles, 154
— in Great Britain, source of, 275
— knives, 80
— lancehead at Mycenæ, 230
— nails, 82
— parazonium, 239
— quadriga, 80
— rapier in Ireland, 279 _n_
— sabres, 80
— socketed sickle (British), 276
— statues (Etruscan), 80
— Swords, 45, 78 _n_, 80;
found in Britain, 276 _sq._;
Gallic, 266;
found at Hallstadt, 262 _sq._;
of Italy, 264;
at Mycenæ, 229 _sq._
— Sword-hilt (Etruscan), 197
— supplied from Phœnicia to Europe, 78 _n_
— tablet, Hittite, 176
— work, Assyrian, 202
Buccinatores (musicians: Roman), 248
‘Buccularius clypeus’ (= buckler), 246 _n_
Buckler (etymology of the word), 246 _n_
— of ox-hide, Roman, 248
Bucklers of osier (for recruits: Roman), 249
Buckles of a Sword, 124 _n_
Buddhism, 213
Budil, King of Assyria, 208
Buffalo, its manner of attack, 9;
arrows made of buffalo-horn, 28
Bull-fights, Spanish, 253
Bull (wild), its manner of attack, 9
Bulwark (portable bridge for sieges), 154
Burbur inscriptions (Babylonia), 199
Burgwälle, 271
Burial as a method of making steel, 265
Burmese Dalwel (Sword), 219
Burying of iron, 107 _n_, 112
Buttons of gold in Troas, 193
Byzantine (?) finds at Mycenæ, 106
Cabiri (Kabeiroi), 74 _sq._
Cadmeian (old Phœnician) characters, 225
_Cadmia fossilis_ (natural calamine), 86
Cadmian stone, 86
Cadmus (_El-Kadim_, or _El-Kadmi_), 60
Cæsar’s treatment of his soldiers, 260
Caillouteurs (flint-knappers), 45 _n_
Calamine (carbonate of zinc), 71, 84;
derivation of the word, 84
Calasiri (Egyptian bowmen), 152
Caledonia (etymology of the word), 275
Calisthenics, Greek, 239
Callua (paddle), 42
Calones (camp-followers: Roman), 249
Caltrops (bamboo splints of Gaboon-land), 14
Camel (the kick of the), 7
Cambyses, 209, 211
Camp-followers (Roman), 249
Campidoctores, 249 _n_
Canaanite (meaning of the word), 175 _n_
Canaanites, 182
Cane bows and arrows, Ancient Indian, 211
Canes used as bellows, 68
Canna (κάννα; whence ‘cannon’), 14 _n_
Cannelure (of a Sword), 132
Cannon (derivation of the word), 14 _n_
— of iron first cast, 117 _n_
Cannons of gold (Baroda), 162 _n_
Canticles of Solomon, the, 147
Capoeira (Brazilian fashion of fighting), 254
Capulus (Sword-pommel: Roman), 257 _n_
‘Carbad scarrda’ (Irish war-car), 277
_Carcharias vulpes_ (fox-shark), 7;
derivation of _Carcharias_, 7 _n_
Carchemish inscription, 177
Carian weapons, 211;
(?) at Mycenæ, 231 _n_
— words, 231 _n_
Carpenter’s tools of copper, 67
Carpentras Inscription, the, 209 _n_
Carpentry in Ancient Egypt, 148
Carpentum (war-chariot), 269
Carpicanna, 14 _n_
Carthaginian mining operations, 107
— names, 181
— Sword-blades, 181
_Caryota urens_ (_Nibong_; sago-wood), 6, 23
Cartouche (_cartuccia_; meaning of the word), 40 _n_
Cast-copper axe, 69
Caspians, 210
_Cassia auriculata_, 111
Cassiterides, 78 _sq._
Cassowary (its method of attack), 12
Casting (of metal) among the Ancient Greeks, 221
Cast-iron slab in Sussex (14th century), 117 _n_
— steel, 114 _n_
Catalan forge, 102 _n_, 111;
furnace, 107
Catamaran (Tasmania), 40
Catapults (of Roman army), 248 _sq._
Cateia (boomerang club), 35, 269
— meaning of the word, 35 _n_
_Catoblepas Gnu_, 9
Cats (domestic, among the Nile-dwellers), 3 _n_
Cavalier and Roundhead, 277 _n_
Cavalry, Hittite, 176
— in Ancient Egypt, 154
— Roman, 246 _n_, 248
Caverns (as dwellings, storehouses, sepulchres), 15 _n_
— French and Belgian, 1 _n_
Cave-temples (Indian), the Sword in, 216
Celestial Empire, the annals of the, 112 _sq._ _n_
Celt, of gold, 212;
expanding, 270;
transition from, to paddle-spear and Sword forms, 41
Celte (in Job), 20 _n_
Celtiberian iron Swords, 107;
weapons, 265
Celtis (or _celtes_ = a chisel), 20 _n_
Celts (the proper orthography), 20 _n_;
celts of copper, 57;
of stone, 154
Census, Hebrew, 185
Centre of percussion, 129
Centurion’s cuirass, 248
Ceramics in Ancient Egypt, 148
Cerbotana, 14 _n_
Ceretolo, sepulchre at, 196
Cestus (knuckle-duster of the classics), 7
Cestus-play, 254
Cetian or Keteian (in Homer), 172
Cetra (Roman shield), 246
Chætodon (archer fish of Japan), 7
Chakarini (war-quoit), 39 _n_
Chakrá (war-quoit), 39
Chalcitic (copper and bronze) Age, 5 _n_
Chalcedony dagger-blade, 46;
splinters for wooden Swords, 47
Chalcolibanon, 85
Chalcos (= Sword, in Homer), 222
Chaldæan gods, 207
Χαλκός (meaning of the word), 58
Χάλκεος οὐδός (‘copper threshold’), 55
Chalybes (iron-workers), 76
‘Chalybian stranger’ (= the Sword), 97
Chalybs (river), 97 _n_
Chalyps (steel), 221
Character of Ancient Gauls, 269 _sq._
Charay (Afghan Sword), 212
Charms (Chinese) of copper, 64
Chape of a Sword, 124;
of a dagger, 124 _n_
Charay (one-edged knife: Afghan), 161 _n_
Charcoal in iron-smelting, 107
Chariot-corps (Ancient Egypt), 154
Chariots of iron, 103
Chairs in Ancient Egypt, 148
Charonion of Antioch, 241 _n_
Chasing (of metals), 81
Chayantanka (tin: Peruvian), 83
Chelidonian sabre (χελιδόνιος ξίφος), 141
Chemosh (Moabite god), 192 _n_
Chereb (Hebrew weapon), 180, 183, 184
Chert arrow-heads, 25
Chert-splinters for wooden Swords, 47
Cherubim (etymology of the word), 183
Cherusci (ancient German tribe), 271
Chess (showing Hindú form of attack), 218, 273 _n_
Chess in Ancient Egypt, 148
‘Chevaucher,’ meaning of, and Greek equivalents, 242 _n_
Chevaux-de-frise, 14
Chile copper the toughest, 68
Chinese (ancient) arms of metal, 63
— form of Sword-staff, 273
— iron-works, 115
— language, 113
— methods of working iron, 114
— sabre-knife, 139
— steel for Swords and knives, 115
— Sword of copper (afterwards of iron), 64
— words for iron, 112 _sq._
Chisels of chalcos, 63;
of stone and copper, 67
— of iron (Etruscan), 197
Chittim (= Cyprus: Hebrew), 187
Chlorite splinters for wooden Swords, 47
Chonta wood (_Guilielma speciosa_), 42
Chopper-blade (Roman), 257
— knife, Hittite, 176
Choppers, Egyptian, 161
Chopper-shaped blade at Mycenæ, 229
Christianity in the Indian Peninsula, 219 _n_
Chrysaor, 180
Chrysochalcos (‘the king of metals’), 86 _n_
Chrysocolla (derivation of the word), 85 _n_
Cidaris or tiara, Persian, 209
Cimbri, a Keltic people, 273
Cinctorium (Roman general’s Sword), 257
Cingulum (waist-belt: Roman), 258
Cinyras (legendary Tyrio-Cyprian king), 188
Circumcision an African practice, 150
— stone knives used in, 46, 69
City of Priam (Troas), 190
Cladibas (claidab), 266 _n_
Claidab (= Spatha), 196
Classes of Hindú weapons, 214
Claymore, 123, 130
Cleaver of the Habshi people, 170
‘Close-Sword,’ Roman, 258
Clothes-pins in the Troas, 191
Club, 20, 32
— development into the Sword, 39 _sq._
Club-Swords, 32 _n_;
Queensland, 44
Clubs of copper, 67
Cluden (juggler’s Sword), 258
Clypeus (Roman shield), 246 _n_
Cobalt (in Ireland), 65
Cock-fighting in the Canary Islands, 254 _n_
Codicilli (tablets), 225
Coffins of granite, 81
Cohorts (of Roman army), 246 _n_
Coin of copper and zinc, 84
Colchians, 210
Cold-wrought (hammered) copper weapons, 65
Colichemarde blade, 135
‘Collery’ (throwing-stick), 38
Colophonium (resin used for soldering), 85 _n_
Colossal Greek statues, 241 _n_
_Coluber Haja_ (Cobra di Capello; asp), 33 _n_
Combats of various animals, 9
Comb found in Nimrúd’s palace, 105
Combinations (earliest) of metals, 74 _sqq._
Comitialis morbus, 260 _n_
Comparison of Man and the lower animals, 5
Confederacy of Etruscan cities, 194
Cong copper mines, 169
Congo Sword, 165
Contus (Roman cavalry spear), 246, 248
Contus (wooden pike), Gallic, 269
_Convolvulus lanifolius_, 111
Coot (its method of attack), 12
Copenhagen scramsahs, 272 _n_
Copper, 22 _n_, 30;
alloys, 53, 57;
the art of hardening it, 53 _sq._;
cutting instruments of, 54 _n_;
copper prior to iron, 55
Copper Age (of weapons), 53;
anterior to bronze, 72
— and brass (alloy), 84
— and gold (alloy), 83
— and tin (alloy), 81
— arms and armour, Ancient Hellenic, 222
— arrow-piles, 65
— bracelet, 72 _n_
— celts, 57, 72
— coinage (Chinese), 64;
of the Hindus, 70
— hatchets, 65;
rakes and hammers, _ib._;
vases, 68
— in Europe, 64;
in America, 65 _sqq._
— knives, Trojan, 191
— mines, Chile, 68;
Midian, 102;
of South-Eastern Africa, 170 _n_
— nails (Greenland, &c.), 65
— placed in a corpse’s mouth, 68
— sheets for flooring (ancient), 55
— statuettes (coated with precious metals), 67
— Swords, 70;
in Troas, 192
— tools in Egyptian hieroglyphs, 69
— trumpets, 221
Copper-trade of Cyprus, 188
‘Cops’ (of metal), 111
Coptic language, 146
Coquimbite (Pampua or white copperas), 68
Core-casting (of metal), 221
Cornicines, 248
Cornu (musical instrument: Roman), 248
Cornwall, mineral fields of, 275
Coronarium (copper coated with ox-gall), 87
Corrugated iron blades, 119 _n_
Corrugated Sword of Africa, 171
Corsican forge, 102 _n_
Corundum in Midian, 171 _n_
Corybantes, 74 _sq._
Cosmogony, Hebrew, 148 _sq._
Cotton dresses, Ancient Indian, 211
_Cottus diceraus_, 10
Counterfeit pearls in Ancient Egypt, 148
Counterguard of a Sword, 125, 138
Coupe-choux Sword, 134, 164
Coustilliers, 185
Coustrils or Custrils, 185
Couteau-de-chasse, 210
Covinus (war-chariot), 269
Cow (its method of defence), 7
Crane, white (American bird), 9
Crannog (its derivation), 27
Crease (= Krís, Malay weapon), 137, 166
Creation, Hebrew idea of, 148 _sq._
Cremation in the Early Bronze Age, 96
— (of bodies) at Mycenæ, 234
Crepitaculum (sacred rattle), 151
Crests (in heraldry), 40 _n_
Cretans (ἀεὶ ψεῦσται), 97 _n_
Crickets (_cicadæ_) as ornaments at Mycenæ, 233
Crimea, Scythian graves in the, 227
Cross of the Coptic Christians, 192 _n_
Crossbow, 19 _n_, 165
— rat-trap, 37 _n_
Cross guard of a Sword, 125
Crucibles (at Schliemann’s Troy), 82
— four-footed, in the Troas, 191
Crucifixion (Assyrian punishment), 203
Cruelties of the Assyrians, 203
Cruithing (= Picts; origin of the name), 279 _n_
Crusade, the First, 218
Crutch and dagger (combined) of antelope horn, 12
Crux ansata (Egyptian Cross), 192 _n_
Crystal chips on spears, 51
— lens (Nineveh), 202
Crystal-cutting in Cyprus, 188
Cuchillo (Spanish clasp-knife), 39
Cuirass, Roman centurion’s, 248
Cultellarii, 185
Culture in Troy, 193
Cuneiform inscriptions (Bayrut), 200 _n_
— syllabarium, 200 _n_
— symbol for iron, 104
Cuneus (tactical formation), 273 _n_
Cupel (crucible; derivation of the word), 111 _n_
Cupriferous sandstones, 67
Cup-sling, 19
Curetes, 74 _sq._
Curium treasure, the, 189
Currus falcatus (scythe war-car: Ancient Britain), 276
Curtle-axe (= cutlass), 140
Curved broadsword, 96
— type of Sword, 127 _sq._
‘Curved thrust,’ 133 _sq._
Cushito-Asiatic (Ethiopian) tribes, 188
Cuspis (point of a Sword: Roman), 255 _n_
Customs of the Ancient Germans, 273
Cut-and-thrust weapons, 123
Cutlass, 123, 140, 211
Cutting edge of a Sword, 129
— or trenchant weapons (origin of), 12
Cyanus (steel), 221;
Dr. Schliemann’s translation of, 222 _n_;
of Pliny (lapis lazuli), _ib._
Cybele (Dea Multimamma), 192 _n_
Cyclopes, 75 _sq._
‘Cyclopean Wall’ (in the Argolid), 76
Cylinder of gold at Mycenæ, 229
Cymbals at the feast of Rhea (in Varro), 58
Cymbals of tin and copper, 81 _n_
Cynocephali, 2
Cyprian dagger, 173
— Venus (worship of), 188 _n_
Cypriote (Ancient) characters, 225
— art, 187
— contingent of Xerxes’ army, 188
— manufacture of arms and armour, 188
— names of places, 188
— syllabary, 188 _sq._
Cyprus, its epithet _ærosa_, 58;
derivation of the name, 59;
account of, 186 _sq._
Cyrus, 209
Dacians on Trajan’s column, 262
Dacian Sword, 262
Dagger (derivation of the word), 215 _n_
Dagger-formed knives, 169 _n_
Dagger-forms from Persepolis, 211
Dagger-Swords, 166;
Assyrian, 204
Daggers, Assyrian, 205
— of bone, 26
— of bronze, 78 _n_
— of copper, 79
— of iron (Egyptian), 100
— used by the Persians, 210
— with rapier-blade (Theban), 195 _n_
Dagon (etymology of the word), 181
Dah (= Dáo: Burmah), 140
Dahome, Swords of the King of, 167
Dalwel (Burmese Sword), 219
Damascened steel, Cypriote, 188
Damask-work (on weapons), 83, 110 _n_, 112, 151 _n_
‘Damascus blade,’ 132, 142
Damascus (Persian) scymitar, 265
Damnameneus, 75
Danish Scramasax, 263
— Swords, 236
‘Danisko’ (African weapon), 163, 237
Dankali Sword, 165
Dáo (weapon of the Nága tribe, Assam), 140
Darius the Mede, 209
Dark Continent, chief weapons of the, 162
Darts and stones (ancient Lybian weapons), 16
David’s sling, 19;
his copper helmet, 70
Deadbook, the, 147
Dearg Umha (red copper; Keltic), 65
Decalogue derived from the Dead-book, 150
Decimal and duodecimal systems in Assyria, 202 _n_
Deer-horn arrow-heads, 24
Defensive armour of bronze, Roman, 254
Defensive weapons (of Animals and Savages), 6
— of the Cimbri, 274
Degan (dagger: Cimbrian), 274
Degen (kind of dagger: German), 215 _n_
Degeneration of Roman soldiers, 261
Deinotherium, 4
Deities standing on animals, 176
Denderah Zodiac, 155 _n_
Densare (meaning of the term), 107
Description of bronze Swords of Ancient Britons, 277 _sq._
— of the Ancient Britons, 275, 277
Devanagari alphabet, 189
Development of Man, 5 _sq._
— of the celt, 88 _n_
Devil, the, 181
Dha or Dhow (Indian knife), 219
Dhanu (personification of the bow: Hindú), 214
Dhanurvidya (Bow-Science: Indian), 213
Dies Alliensis, 267
Dimacheri (gladiators), 252
_Diodon_, 44
Diorite axe bored by means of a bow, 191 _n_
Diorite (? basalt) implements at Mycenæ, 53 _n_
— in Ancient Egypt, 171 _n_
Dioscuri, 75
‘Distaff-side’ relationship, 188 _n_
Divination in Assyria, 202
‘Doctored’ bullets, 26 _n_
Dolche (daggers), 30, 273
Dolls in Ancient Egypt, 148
Dolphins in the Nile, 9
Door-hinges in Nimrúd’s palace, 105
Door-sockets of bronze, Assyrian, 202
Double balteus (Roman), 258 _n_
Double-edged Sword blades (Wahumla tribe), 169
Double-headed eagle (at Eyub), 176
Double-sided comb in Nimrúd’s palace, 105
Dowris bronze, 87
— copper, 53
‘Dowris metal,’ 181, 276
Dragon’s blood, 87 _n_
Dress-pins (women’s) of copper, 67
Draughts (game of) in Ancient Egypt, 148
‘Drawing-cut,’ 131
Duel of Manlius Torquatus and the Gaul, 267
— origin of, 267 _n_
Duelling weapons, 135
Dumb-bells, 250
‘Dunner-Saxen’ (Lower Saxony), 272 _n_
Düsack (weapon), 123
Eagle, imperial, 246 _n_
Early Iron Age in Britain, 276
— — — of weapons, 97
Ears of a Sword, 124
Eastern heraldry, 140
Edge of a Sword, 124
EGYPT (Ancient), geography of, 145
— architecture in, 148
— art and science in, 147 _sq._
— heraldry in, 147 _sq._
— its military system, 152 _sqq._
— its monotheism, 149
— law code of, 147
— music, painting, and sculpture in, 148
— the cradle land of language, 146
— the fountain head of knowledge, 147
Egyptian arch, 201
— choppers, 161
— cutlasses, 211
— daggers, 157
— flag (five-rayed star on), 147 _n_
— gilding (on bronze), 81
— metallurgy, 80
— names for the Sword, 123, 155 _sq._
— phalanx, 155
— Sphinx, 190 _n_
— Swords, 157;
in Cyprus, 189
— word-roots, 146 _n_
Egyptians (Ancient), their origin, 143 _sq._
El-darakah (Arabic shield), 12 _n_
Electricity, the marvellous displays of in Central Africa, 119
Electrum (derivation of the word), 86 _n_
Elephants armed with Swords, 216
— Indian and African, 3 _n_
Elephant-Sword, 216
Elephant-trunk ornaments, 67 _n_
Elephant (use of a weapon by), 3;
its stroke or blow, 7
El-Khauf maksum, 6
El-Khizr (the Green Prophet), 179
Emblems of the Egyptian nomes, 147
Emu, 4
Enamel, Assyrian, 202
Enfield Sword-bayonet, 134 _n_
‘Englishmen of Antiquity,’ 275
English gladiatorism, 253
Engraving on copper plates, 55 _n_
Ensigns in Ancient Roman army, 246 _n_
Ensis, 247;
etymology of the word, 254
Entering angle, 132
Enthytonon, 19
Epitaph of Eshmunazar, 179
‘Epos of Peutaur,’ 101, 147
Erin (etymology of the name), 192 _n_
Ἐριόκομοι, 144 _n_
‘Erythræans,’ the original, 182 _n_
Escrime (fencing: derivation of the word), 272 _n_
Essedum (war chariot), 269, 277 _n_
Eshmunazar (King of the Sidonians), 179
Eskimos, 3
Espadon, 123, 161
‘Esquimaux’ (origin of the word), 3 _n_
Estain (= stannum: Gall.), 65
Esther (= Amestris), 210 _n_
Ἑστία, 1 _n_
Ethiopian stone-tipped arrows, 154 _n_
Etruscan and Latin affinities with Lydian, 194
— armilla of bronze, 196
‘Etruscan Bologna,’ 196
Etruscan commerce, 197
— inscriptions, 197
— iron lance-point, 196
— œnochoe, 196
— razors, 202 _n_
Etruscans (account of the people), 195
Eucalyptus-wood sabres, 44
Eunuchs, 206, 207 _n_
Exchange of war-prisoners, Roman, 241
Executioner, Assyrian, 207
Executioner’s Sword, 139
Exodus of tribes from Ancient Germany, 270
Expanding celt, 270
Experiments in alloys, 83
Fabri (Sappers: Roman army), 249
Face-guard of iron, 258
Facon or Cuchillo (Spanish clasp-knife, as a missile), 18
Falchion of Ashanti, &c., 139;
of Ancient Egypt, 155 _sq._
— of Cilicia, 182
— of gold, 212
Falchion-shaped weapons, 32
Falconry in Ancient Egypt, 148
‘Falling on the Sword,’ 184 _sq._
Falx (origin of the falchion), 253 _n_
Famagosta (etymology of the name), 190
Famous Swordsmen of old, 240 _n_
Fancy Swords, Roman, 258;
weapons, 204
‘Fans’ (= Mpangwe negros, Gaboon River), 37 _n_
Feathers as military decorations, 247 _n_
Fecial College, the, 244 _sq._
Felidæ (their strokes or blows), 7
Fencing-foil, 123
Fencing-schools, Roman, 249, 251
Fenni (Finns), 274
Ferentarii (Roman soldiers), 245
Ferro-manganese, 108
Ferrum (= Sword; Roman), 254
— candidum, 108
— indicum, 107, 109, 110
— sericum, 109
Fenekh (= Phœnicians), 178
Fibrolite-splinters for wooden Swords, 47
Fibulæ of copper, 72
Field-marshal’s bâton, 33
Figg (English prize-fighter), 253
Fighting-cocks in Ancient Greece, 254 _n_
Fil (of a Sword), 137
Fil et pointe (cut-and-thrust weapons), 123
Finds in Cimbrian barrows, 274
— in old tumuli, 271
— of Cyprian weapons, 188 _sqq._
— of Dr. Schliemann in the Troas, 190 _sq._
Fingal’s war-cars (Ossian), 277 _n_
Fir-bolgs (bag-men, Belgæ?), 64
Fir-cone, the, as an architectural ornament, 201
Fire, 1, 2 _n_, 20
Firearms among the Ancient Hindus (?), 214 _n_
‘First Highlander,’ the, 217
Fist-sword (stiletto), 215
First lesson in iron, 99
Fishes (their means of attack or defence), 9 _sq._
Five-rayed star (on Egyptian flag), 147 _n_
Flagellum (gladiatorial scourge), 253
Flail, 20
Flails used as weapons, 95
Flamberg, Flammberg, Flamberge, 123, 136
‘Flaming Sword’ (of the Cherubim: Eden), 183
‘Fleam-money’ (among the Fans), 118
Flint-ateliers (ancient), 102
Flint-flakes, 13;
knives, 20;
‘Swords,’ 45
Flint-knappers (_caillouteurs_), 45
Flint poniards, 46;
hatchet-sabre, _ib._
Flissa (weapon: North Africa), 123, 163, 237, 265
‘Flood,’ the, 149
Fluxing (method of treating ores), 65
Foil with French guard, 133
Foining weapon, 123
‘Fonderia di Bologna,’ 196 _n_
‘Forethought,’ 1
Forges, 102
Forked blade, 141
Forked Sword (Assyria), 141
Fortifications, Assyrian, 203
Fox-shark (Thresher; _Carcharias vulpes_), 7
Framea (derivation of the word), 270 _n_
Framée, the oldest, 270
Francisque or taper axe, 94
Frankish Italians, 270 _n_
— spear-blade, 171
Franks (meaning of the name), 271
French fencing-foil, 124
Fronstetten scramsahs, 272 _n_
Fuel used in iron-smelting, 121
Funda (sling of the Etruscans), 245
Funeral urns of copper, 69
Fur-coats, Gallic, 269
Furnace-calamine (impure oxide of zinc), 86
Furnaces (Indian) for iron-smelting, 111 _n_
Fuscina (gladiatorial weapon), 253
Fusil Gras, 134
Fussängel, 1
Fustanella (kilt), 247 _n_
‘Fustibale’ (fustibulus), 19
Future state, Egyptian ideas of a, 150
Fylfot (crutched cross: North of Europe), 202 _n_
Gabbro-Splinters for wooden Swords, 47
Gæsum (Roman weapon), 246 _n_, 268
Gæsatæ (= hastati), 268 _n_
Galatæ (= Roman term _Galli_), 238 _n_
Γαλάται (etymology of the word), 266 _n_
Galla Sword, 163
Gallia Comata, 269;
Bracchata, _ib._;
Togata, 270
Gallic daggers, 267
— Italians, 270 _n_
— javelins, 268
— machairæ-blades, 266
— manner of battle, 269
‘Gallic Sword,’ 254, 266
Gallic women in battle, 269
Gallo-Greek (= Galatians, Keltic Gauls), 238 _n_
— Swords, 238
Ga-ne-u-ga-o-dus-ha (Iroquois deer-horn war-club), 28
Gardening in Ancient Egypt, 148
Gasterosteus (‘stickleback’), 10
Gastrapheta, 19
Gath (its site), 186
Gaulish element in Etruria (?), 196 _sq._
Gaza (site of), 186
Gem-engraving, Assyrian, 202
— in Cyprus, 188
General ‘No Importa’ (Spanish), 261
Generals, first duty of, 260 _n_
Genii of Death (Egyptian), 149
Geography of Ancient Egypt, 145
Geometry in Ancient Egypt, 148
— in Assyria, 202 _n_
Georgic (age of primitive Archæology), 5 _n_
German Empire, 270
— main-gauche, 136
— silver (_packfong_; of China), 64 _n_
Germani (Alemanni), weapons of the, 270
Germania, Ancient (its land and people), 270
Germanism, 270
Gessum (meaning of the word), 268 _n_
Getæ (Scandinavian Goths), 274
Gharapuri (cave-town; Bay of Bombay), 217
Gilding bronze, 81
Giraffe (its kick), 7
Girding on the Sword, 185
‘Giving point,’ 127
Gizzin (Assyrian weapon), 204 _n_
Glacial Drift Age, 5 _n_
Gladius, 247;
etymology of the word, 254
— Hispanus, 256, 268
Gladiatorial shows, 249, 251 _sq._
Gladiatorism, 249 _sq._
Glaive (origin of the weapon), 89 _n_, 123;
leaf-shaped, 165
Glaives edged with sharks’ teeth, 49
Glass (derivation of the word), 48 _n_;
used on spears, 48;
the fable of its discovery by the Sidonians, 54
Glass-cutting in Cyprus, 188
Glass-making in Ancient Egypt, 148
Gleditschia, 6