IV. HISTORY OF CHAIN MAIL AND RING MAIL 



Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs 

 Piercing the night's dull ear, and from the tents 

 The armourers, accomplishing the knights, 

 With busy hammers closing rivets up, 

 Give dreadful note of preparation. 



— Shakespeare (King Henry V). 



In the preceding notes we attempted to establish on the basis of 

 inward evidence a progressive historical sequence indicating a connec- 

 tion which linked Iran, Turan, and China in matters of warfare and 

 armament about the first centuries before our era. We now propose 

 to subject to an investigation a specific case revealing in the time of the 

 early middle ages the transmission of a well-defined type of body armor 

 from Persia to China and other countries. 



At the present time we find widely distributed over Asia an interest- 

 ing type of defensive armor occurring in the two variations of chain 

 mail and ring mail. The word "mail" is derived from French maille 

 (Latin macula), and originally designates the mesh of a net. Chain 

 mail consists of interwoven links of iron or steel so joined together that 

 the whole affair in itself forms a shirt or coat. Ring mail is composed of 

 rows of overlapping iron or steel rings fastened upon a heavy back- 

 ground of cloth or leather forming a jerkin. Chain mail was a favorite 

 means of defence in the chivalrous age of Europe, during the twelfth 

 and thirteenth centuries. At present specimens are still encountered in 

 Persia, among the tribes of the Caucasus, in India, Tibet, Mongolia, 

 Siberia, and China. 1 Tibet is probably now the only country in the 

 world where chain mail is still donned in actual military service; while 

 all other peoples simply keep it as an heirloom or relic of the past, or, 

 like the chieftains of some Caucasian tribes, may sometimes parade it 

 on ceremonial occasions. 



The origin of chain mail, as will be seen from the following notes, is 

 to be sought in Iran. The Persian chain mail is an astounding example 

 of the migration and wide distribution of a cultural object over a vast 

 area. Not only is it diffused over India, Tibet, and China, but also over 

 the whole of Siberia; and it is interesting to note that nearly all observers 



1 Reference to the use of chain mail among the Kiu-ku Miao has been made above 

 (p. 194). 



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