THE GENESIS OF THE SWORD. 



83 



slight forward curvature of the blade, a feature which is heightened 

 in the Goorkha knife, the owner of which, it is said, can decapitate an 

 ox with one blow of it (Fig. 32). Some of the Eastern swords, as 

 those of the Chinese, the Bashi-Bazouk or Circassian dagger, with its 

 blade resembling the Roman gladius, and the Mahratta sword, are 

 straight, like the Western weapons. 



The ornamentation of all these weapons is very frequently only the 

 survival of the methods by which the blades were fixed to their hilts, 

 which was generally by thongs or rivets. Thus the Malay creese (Fig. 

 33) and the tulwar (Fig. 34) are made clearly to indicate the way in 

 which the blade was originally lashed with cords to the hilt. 



The sword does not rank so highly with savage nations as the spear 



30 31 



Asiatic Curved Swords. 



33 34 



Survivals of Methods of Attachment. 



or club, and belongs to a higher civilization than that which is satis- 

 fied with hand-to-hand weapons of stone. But the development of the 

 club into the sword is easily traceable, though the ultimate resultant 

 is far inferior to the metal blades of even the bronze age. Figs. 35 

 to 41 show the successive steps. The Xew Zealand club (Fig. 35) ; 

 the Indian collaree-stick (Fig. 36), often used as a missile ; the Iro- 

 quois club (Figs. 37, 38), rendered good for piercing or cutting as 

 well by a deer-horn point at first, and by an iron blade later on ; the 

 Marquesas (Fig. 39) or Tahiti cutting instrument, armed with sharks' 

 teeth ; the. Esquimau or Australian sword (Fig. 40), in which strips 

 of meteoric iron, obsidian, or glass are inserted in a cleft in the side of 

 a stick; and fastened by cement ; and, lastly, the Mexican maquahuilt 

 (Fig. 41), or wooden sword, armed with sharp, razor-like flakes of ob- 

 sidian, are the progressive steps of savage life toward the sword. The 

 last-mentioned weapon was deadly enough to be ranked with its iron 

 compeer, for it is said to have been capable of cutting off a limb. In 

 this respect it is th^ highest type of a sword of other materials than 

 metal. 



Of all weapons, the sword has held throughout historic time the 



