AMEEICAN AND EUROPEAN SWORDS 141 



Kilpatrick, of the Cincinnati Highlands GuardJ^ The blade bears 

 two narrow deep grooves in the center, and each side is decorated 

 in an artistic manner with floral and trophy designs in silver chasing. 

 The grip is covered with fisliskin and wound with six turns of brass 

 tape. The openwork basket-shaped guard is decorated with heart- 

 shaped designs, two groups of which are arranged in the form of 

 wheels. The interior of the guard is lined with a buckskin pouch, 

 the front of which is covered with scarlet cloth. The pommel is 

 bell-shaped. The scabbard is made of black leather and is protected 

 by three steel mounts, the uppermost of which is engraved " Capt. 

 R. L. Kilpatrick, Cincinnati Highlands Guard, 1858." This specimen 

 was transferred to the National Museum in 1923 from the Military 

 Service Institution. 



SPANISH SWORDS 



SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURY SWORDS 



The series of Spanish swords in the National Museum includes 

 a number of the clumsy types carried by the early Spanish explorers 

 who penetrated the interior of North and South America during 

 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These " have long 2-edged 

 blades, cylindrical grips with ball-shaped pommels, circular guards, 

 S-shaped quillons, and solid bell-shaped counterguards. An early 

 Spanish saber ^^ of exceptional beauty of design has a long curved 

 blade with a wide deep central groove on each side. The obverse is en- 

 graved in large capitals with the legend, "No Me Saques Sin Rason " 

 and the reverse " No Me Enbaines Sin Honor." '^ The grip is made 

 of steel and is wound with 15 turns of double steel wire, the spaces 

 between which are decorated with horizontal lines. The pommel 

 is a steel ball and the guard a single, broad, flat piece of steel, which 

 expands at the blade into broad quillons with two rectangular open- 

 ings on each side. This saber was acquired by the National Museum 

 from the Military Service Institution. 



EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURY SWORDS 



The Spanish series includes six light artistic swords of the latter 

 part of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth. 

 The hilts resemble to a marked degree those of the light German 

 sabers already described, as the grips are in most cases decorated 

 with vertical grooves wound with brass wire and the guards are 



''^ Length, 98.5 cm. Blade, 82.8 cm. long, 3 cm. wide. Inscribed " Hawkes & Co., 

 London, Manufacturers to the Queen." PI. 42, fig. 2. 



"These vary in length from 105 to 110 cm. The blades are 87 to 92.5 cm. long and 

 3.5 to 4 cm. wide. See pi. 42, figs. 4-6, for illustrations of swords of this general type. 



'8 Length, 100 cm. Blade, 84.5 cm. long, 2.7 cm. wide. Fl. 42, fig. 9. 



^' " Do not draw me without reason. Do not sheath me without honor." 



