History of Chain Mail and Ring Mail 249 



plained in the text, is made of white cotton and tied up by means 

 of a cord. 



Two specimens of chain mail secured in China are represented on 

 Plate XXVI. Both are jackets with sleeves, having a short slit under- 

 neath the neck, and being tied up by means of a leather band. Though 

 identical in appearance, they are of different technique. The shirt of 

 mail shown in Fig. 1 of the Plate consists of riveted steel rings; the one 

 in Fig. 2, of welded iron rings. The former was obtained at Si-ning, 

 Kan-su Province, with the information that it had previously hailed 

 from Tibet; the latter, at Si-ngan, Shen-si Province. These two coats, 

 accordingly, are technically much superior to the one from the 

 Caucasus, in which the rings are merely of twisted iron wire not welded. 

 It is thus clear that there are coats of mail widely varying in the technical 

 process and in quality. To decide the question as to the locality where 

 the two specimens were manufactured would require a larger compara- 

 tive material than is at my disposal. The Tibetans, as will be seen 

 presently, must be discarded as being unable to produce chain mail. 

 The Chinese, as we noticed, may have themselves made it in the T'ang 

 period; it is certain, however, that none is turned out in China at the 

 present time. Altogether, these specimens are scarce; and modern 

 Chinese accomplishments in iron and steel are so crude and inferior, 

 that it is difficult to believe in the Chinese origin of the two pieces of 

 mail. Particularly the mail in Fig. 1 of Plate XXVI represents such a 

 complex and toilsome technicality, involving so great an amount of 

 time and patience as can be credited only to a highly professional and 

 skilful armorer, who was a specialist in this line; the process of riveting 

 steel rings, moreover, is not practised by the Chinese. My personal 

 impression in the matter, therefore, is that the two mails were 

 fabricated in Persia or Turkistan, and thereupon traded to China. 



An offensive weapon deserves attention in this connection, because a 

 chain is utilized in it, and its invention is ascribed by the Chinese to a 

 foreign tribe. This is the Vie lien kia (No. 1132) pang, a weapon con- 

 sisting of two wooden cudgels, the one nearly three times the length of 

 the other, their upper ends being connected by an iron chain (Fig. 40). 

 The longer cudgel is round, and is held by its lower end in the hands of 

 the soldier; the shorter one is square in cut, and provided at the end with 

 a sharp iron point intended to hit the enemy's head. The chain allow- 

 ing it ample freedom of motion, it is swung around in a wide circle, thus 

 making it a fierce and powerful weapon. The Wu pei chi, illustrating 

 and describing this instrument (Ch. 104, p. 14), states that its original 

 home was among the Si Jung (the Western Jung), one of the general 

 designations for the Turkish and Tibetan tribes living north-west 



