1883.] on the Forms and History of the Sivord. 387 



other bars parallel to the axis of the blade which serve as hand-guards, 

 and the long sword with gauntlet hilt called Pata. The dagger, as far 

 as the blade goes, is of a widesj^read type : the media3val short 

 swords, for example, called by modern antiquaries " anelace " or 

 "hmgue-de-boeuf " (though there is some doubt as to what anelace or 

 aulas, a name peculiar to England and of unknown origin, really 

 means), are not unlike it. But the mounting is peculiar, and enables 

 us to follow the transitions. First the blade is made about a third 

 or a half longer. Then a kind of shell covering the back of the hand 

 is added to the bars of the hand-guard. In this form the weapon is 

 called " Bara jamdadd " (death-giver), and seems to be known only in 

 a limited part of Southern India. Finally the blade is lengthened 

 into a double-edged sword, and the hand-guard is closed in so as to 

 make a complete gauntlet-shaped hilt. The original cross-bar handle 

 remains, making the grip entirely ditferent from that of an ordinary 

 sword.* One does not see how an arm thus mounted can be used 

 exce]3t for a sweej^ing blow, no room being given for the slightest 

 play of the wrist. It is not uncommon to tind old Spanish or other 

 European blades mounted in these gauntlet hilts — a fact worth 

 noticing, to correct the popular impression that Eastern swords are 

 better than European ones. This is far from being generally true. 

 Not only may old Spanish, Italian, or German blades be found in col- 

 lections of Oriental arms, but in quite modern times Indian horsemen 

 have been known to use by preference English light cavalry swords, 

 remounted in their own fashion, and to do terrible execution with 

 them. European swords have been found inetftjctive in Indian war- 

 fare, not because they were bad in themselves, but because they were 

 not kept sharp like the Indian ones. " A sharp sword will cut in any 

 one's hand," said an old native trooi^er to Captain Nolan in answer to 

 questions as to the secret of the Indian horsemen's blows. And if 

 European sword-smiths do not produce habitually such elaborate work 

 as those of Persia and Damascus, it is not because they have not the 

 secret of their Eastern fellow-craftsmen, but because the time and 

 expense required for watered blades are such as would not be compen- 

 sated by the price obtainable in the Western market. Only in the 

 East, where men seem to take no count of time, and where centuries 

 have passed without historians and without any means of fixing dates, 

 could this branch of the armourer's art have arisen, or be reguUirly 

 practised. 



Similarly, we have all read in Walter Scott's ' Talisman ' the spirited 

 (though, it must be confessed, inaccurate f) description of the sword- 



* Examples of all the stages may be seen in the Indian section of the South 

 Kensington Museum, or still better in tlie Pitt-Eivers collectiou, where a case is 

 specially arranged to show the transition. 



t Richard I. is made to wield a two-handed sword, a weapon unknown in Ids 

 time, and used only by fuot-soldiers when it did come in some three centuries later ; 

 and Saladin's is described as having a narrow curved blade, whereas Indo-Persian 

 sabres are, on the average, broader if anything than European swords. 



