60 NATURE'S TEACHINGS. 



As to the bamboo, it has a great advantage in the thinness of 

 its walls, and the coating of flinty substance with which it is 

 surrounded, and which gives its edges a knife- like sharpness. 

 Indeed, so very sharp is the silex, that splinters of bamboo are 

 still used as knives, and with them a skilful operator can cut up 

 a large hog as expeditiously as one of our pork-butchers could 

 do with the best knife that Sheffield produces. 



I possess several of these weapons, and formidable arms of 

 offence they are. If the reader can imagine to himself a tooth- 

 pick, a foot or more in length, made from bamboo instead of 

 quill, and having its edges nearly as sharp as a razor, he can 

 realise the force of even so simple a weapon. In the case of the 

 bamboo, too, celerity of manufacture has its value, for any one 

 can make a couple of spears in less than as many minutes. All 

 he has to do is to cut down a joint of bamboo transversely, and 

 then with a diagonal blow of his knife at the other end to form 

 the point. 



The force of such a weapon may be inferred from a remarkable 

 combat that took place some sixty years ago, when the roads 

 were not so safe as they are at present. 



A gentleman, who happened to be a consummate master of 

 the sword, was going along the highway at night, and was 

 attacked by two footpads, he having no weapon but a bamboo 

 cane. 



One of them he temporarily disabled by a severe kick, and 

 then turned to the other, whom he found to be pretty well as 

 good a swordsman as himself, and to possess a good stick 

 instead of a slight cane. The footpad soon discovered the dis- 

 crepancy of weapons, and with a sharp blow smashed the cane 

 to pieces, leaving only about eighteen inches in his antagonist's 

 hand. 



Almost instinctively Baron sprang under the man's 



guard, and dashed the broken cane in his face. The footpad 

 staggered with a groan, put his hands to his face, and ran 

 away, followed by his companion, who did not desire another 

 encounter with such an antagonist. When the victor reached 

 his destination, he found that the footpad's face must have been 

 torn to pieces, for the clefts of the split bamboo were full of 

 scraps of skin, flesh, and whisker hair. 



It is worthy of notice that the combination of the club and 



