388 -ITr. Frederic}: Polled- [June 1, 



feats performed bv Eichard and Saladin ; and most readers probably 

 imagine the cutting of the cushion and the veil to require some temper 

 to be found onlv in Oriental blades, or some refinement of address 

 peculiar to Oriental hands. But these and other feats of Eastern 

 swordsmen have been and are repeated with success by Europeans in 

 our own time. It is true that a light and very sharp sword, not the 

 service arm, is used for that special purpose. 



Various peculiar types of curred swords and more or less similar 

 weapons occur in different parts of the East. One which deserves 

 special mention, from the distances to which it has travelled, is the 

 yataghan type. The doubly- curved blade of the yataghan, still a 

 constant part of the armed Albanian's equipment, and a favourite 

 Turkish weapon,* is identical in form with the short sword or falchion 

 (Kopis) fisrured on sundry Greek monuments, and with the Kukri of 

 Nepal. This last, indeed, is commonly broader and more curved ; 

 but there is an elongated variety of it which cannot be distinguished 

 from the yataghan, and which occurs in Xepal itself, in the Deccan, 

 and in Sind. A precisely similar arm, probably imported by Roman 

 auxiliaries, has been found at Cordova and elsewhere in Spain, and 

 mav be seen in the Pitt-Eivers collection and the Musee d'Artillerie. 

 It makes a very handy and formidable weapon, combining, if not too 

 much curved, a strong cutting etige with considerable thrusting power. 

 Of its birthplace, I believe, nothing is known ; it is more or less used 

 in all the Mahometan parts of Asia, and the geographical distribution 

 would point to Persia or thereabouts for a common origin ; but then 

 Persia is just the country where the thing seems to be least common, 

 and the word is purely Turkish. It is not impossible that, notwith- 

 standing the strong temptation to make out a pedigree, we have here 

 a case of independent invention in two or more distinct quarters ; and 

 in fact the Kukri of the Gorkhas is stated (on what authority I do 

 not know) to be derived from a bill-hook used for woodcutter's work 

 in the jungles. In modem times the yataghan has been the parent of 

 the French sword-bayonet, and it was even proposed by Colonel 

 Marey, the author of a full and ingenious monograph on the forms 

 and qualities of swords, to make the infantry officer's sword of this 

 pattern. 



There are many kinds of outlandish weapons, in Nepal and farther 

 east, of which the edge has a concave instead of a convex curvature. 

 I doubt whether these be properly swords ; at all events, they have 

 had no influence on European forms. The Japanese swords also 

 stand by themselves, though they are historically nothing but a 

 superior variety of the general type which is found in China and 

 Burmah, and to some extent in the Malay archipelago. They are 

 exceedingly sharp, but have no flexibility at all. It may be worth 

 noting that the custom of wearing two swords, which has been the 



* I do not think it was adopted by the Greeks. In the Klephtic ballads it 

 seems to be oppose^J, as the Turkiah arm, to the Greek sword {airaei). 



