1883.] on the Forms and History of the Sword. 389 



occasion of some curiosity and conjectural explanation, is not confined 

 to Japan. Certain Arabs in the Mahratta service are stated to have 

 done the same.* The two swords of the Japanese, however, are of 

 such different sizes as to be rather comparable to the sword and 

 dagger of Europeans, and perhaps there is really nothing to explain. 



We pass now to the other special line of development, that of the 

 rapier and small-sword. Whatever differences of opinion may be 

 possible about the sabre, there can be no doubt that the straight 

 sword which ultimately became a thrusting sword is an extension of 

 the dacrger. The East is rich in daggers of manv forms, so rich that 

 m India alone a score of distinct names for distinct varieties of the 

 weapon appear to be current. There is a broad difference, however, 

 between the straight and the curved daggers, and the modes of using 

 them ; the straight ones being held like a sword, the curved ones the 

 reverse way, with the little finger next the blade. Among the curved 

 species is one of which the shape would be puzzling if it were not 

 known to be simply copied from a buffalo horn. The proof is that a 

 dagger of this class is sometimes nothing but the split and sharpened 

 buffalo horn itself. I am not sure that all the curved daggers mav 

 not be due to some imitation of this kind, and thus be quite uncon- 

 nected with the course of development leading up to the modem 

 sword. That the curved sabre is modified from a straight sword, not 

 enlarged from a curved dagger, is, I think, too plain lor discussion. 

 The broad-bladed straight dagger which lengthened into the gauntlet- 



O CO c c 



hilted sword has already been mentioned. But neither in this nor in 

 any other case does the enlargement of the dagger aj)pear to have 

 suggested in the East the fabrication or use of a full-sized sword with 



CO 



thrusting for its chief or sole pui-pose. The rapier, the duelling 

 sword, and the art of fencing, are pui-ely Western inventions. Before 

 going further, let us put a needful distinction of terms beyond mistake. 

 A duelling sword and a rapier are not the same thing, though they 

 are often confused. The raf)ier is a cut-and-thrust sword so far 

 modified as to be used chiefly for pointing, but not to the complete 

 exclusion of the edge. The duelling sword is a weapon made, and 



C O X 7 



capable of being used, for pointing only. Such a construction would 

 be natiu'ally first applied to the dagger, as its cutting edges could 

 never be of much offensive service unless it were of a large and 

 clumsy tj-pe. Cutting power being once regarded as secondary or 

 superfluous, the two-edged blade is narrowed for convenience of 

 carriage, perhaps also of concealment, until thickening becomes neces- 

 sary to make it strong enough. This reinforcement may be effected 

 by a ridge on either side of the blade, or by a ridge on one side only, 

 which soon becomes as much or as little of an edge as the original 

 and now degraded edges of the blade. From the narrow two-edged 

 blade streng-theued by a single '• median ridge*" we get a purely 

 thrusting blade of triangular section, or an approximately bayonet- 



* EgLiton. op. cit., p. 114. 



