54 



NATURE S TEACHINGS. 



called. Tile ball, which is a large and rather heavy one, 

 weighing more than twice as much as a cricket-ball, is struck 

 with a wooden gauntlet reaching nearly half-way up tho fore- 

 arm. The original gauntlet was cut entirely out of the solid 

 wood, and exactly resembled the exterior of the Durian. The 

 modern gauntlet, however, has the spikes fixed separately into 

 a wooden frame, so that they can be replaced if broken in the 

 course of the game. The principle, however, is identical in all 

 three cases. The technical name of this gauntlet is Bracciale. 



The next improvement was to add still further to the destruc- 

 tive powers of the club by arming it with stones, so as to make 

 it harder and heavier. Sometimes a stone is perforated, and 

 the end of the club forced into it. Sometimes the stone is 

 lashed to the club, and sometimes a hole is bored in the club, 

 and the stone driven into it. This kind of club, made of a sort 

 of rosewood, may be found among some of the tribes inhabiting 

 the district of the Essequibo. 



The next improvement was to make the weapon entirely of 

 metal, and such clubs are plentiful in every good collection of 

 arms. There was, for example, the common mace, which was 

 used for the purpose of stunning an adversary clothed in 

 armour which the sword could not penetrate. As this, how- 

 ever, was nothing more than an ordinary wooden club executed 

 in iron, we need not produce examples. 



Other and more complicated forms were soon made, and 

 were wonderfully valuable until the rapidly improving fire- 

 arms kept combatants at a distance, and rendered a hand-to- 

 hand fight almost impossible. 



Three examples of such clubs are given in the illustration, 

 and are taken from Demmin's valuable work called " Weapons 

 of War." 



The upper left-hand specimen is called Morgen stern, i.e. 

 Morning Star. It is a large, heavy wooden ball studded with 

 steel spikes, and affixed to a handle usually some six or seven 

 feet, but sometimes exceeding eleven feet, in length. It was 

 chiefly used by infantry when attacking cavalry, the long shaft 

 enabling the foot-soldier to be tolerably sure of dealing the 

 cavalier or his horse a severe blow, while himself out of reach 

 of the latter's sword. 



Behind it is another Morgenstern in which there is an 



