BOOK XVI. Lxiv. 158-LXV. 161 



of a slender appearance, jointed and divided with 

 knots and tapering gradually off to the top with a 

 rather thick tuft of hair, which also is not with- 

 out value, as it either serves instead of feathers to 

 stuff the beds of innkeepers, or in places where it 

 grows very hard and woody in structure, as in 

 Belgium, it is pounded up and insertcd between 

 the joints of ships to caulk the seams, holding better 

 than glue and being more rehable for filHng cracks 

 than pitch. 



LXV. The peoples of the East employ reeds in Reed 

 making war ; by means of reeds with a feather added """^^ 

 to them they hasten the approach of death, and to 

 reeds they add points which deal wounds with their 

 barb that cannot be extracted, and if the weapon 

 itself breaks in the wound, another weapon is made 

 out of it. With these weapons they obscure the 

 very rays of the sun, and this is what chiefly makes 

 them want calm weather and hate wind and rain, 

 which compel the combatants to keep peace between 

 them. And if anybody should make a rather careful 

 reckoning of the Ethiopians, Egyptians, Arabs, 

 Indians, Scythians and Bactrians, and the numerous 

 races of the Sarmatians and of the East, and all the 

 realms of the Parthians, almost one-half of mankind 

 in the whole world Hves subject to the sway of the 

 reed.'* It was outstanding skill in this employment 

 of the reed in Crete that made her warriors famous ; 

 but in this also, as in all other things, Italy has 

 won the victory, as no reed is more suitable for arrows 

 than that Mhich grows in the river at Bologna, the 

 Reno, which contains the largest amount of pith 

 and has a good flying weight and a balance that 

 offers a sturdy resistance even to gusts of wind — an 



491 



