1 



E. Maclagan— On Early Asiatic Fire Weapons. 



85 



And giff the sow come to the wall, 



To lat it brynand on her fall, 



And with stark chenyeis hald it thar, 



Quhill all were brynt up that thar war.* 

 For exposure to any such direct and plentiful application of fire at close 

 quarters some roof covering of a not very inflammable kind was needed. The 

 musculus which, came under the fire of the Massilian tar-barrels,f was pre- 

 pared for it, sheltered by tiled roofing covered with earth and hides. Pro- 

 tection, also, against fire missiles discharged from a distance needed, in order 

 to answer its purpose, to be adapted to the character of the burning matter 

 which it had to resist ; and shelter which was sufficient against the more 

 innocent combustibles was not fitted to encounter burning naphtha or Greek 

 Fire. Against the more primitive fire-arrows, leathern mantlets served for 

 the protection of the soldiers and workmen, and for the defensive covering 

 of the towers and engines. At the attack on Bamian by Chingiz Khan, 

 A. D. 1221, an order was given to kill as many horses and cows as would 

 provide hides to cover the besieging engines, by which it is said they were 

 effectually protected. The fire thrown by the defenders did them no harm. 

 But at Khojand, two years before, when the besieged threw burning naph- 

 tha, additional shelter was used, made of sheets of felt covered with clay, 

 and moistened with vinegar. % By many writers vinegar is mentioned as the 

 best or only means of quenching Greek Fire.§ Against the fire arrows and 



* Barbour, The Bruce, Book XVII. 



f Thucyd., II, 75. Arrian., Exp. Alex., II, 18. When we are told of a stouter pro- 

 tection being insufficient against a phalarica, — 



Sed magnum stridens contorta phalarica venit 

 Fulminis acta modo ; quam nee duo taurea terga 

 Nee duplici squama lorica fidelis et auro 

 Sustinuit. (Virg. ^En. IX, 705.) 

 we may infer that this had nothing to do with the kind of fire with which the 

 javelin was charged, but is meant to indicate, in poetical fashion, the force with which it 

 was launched by the hand of a hero. 



t Petis de la Croix, Hist, of G-enghiscan, 307, 190. In the First Crusade an engine 

 is said to have been made to Godfrey's order by 



" a cunning architect, 

 William, of all the Genoas lord and guide." 



" whereof he clothed the sides 

 Against the balls of fire with raw bull's hides." 



Tasso, Jer. Del. (Fairfax's translation), XVIII, 41, 43. 

 But this protection was not effectual. It could not withstand the Greek Fire 

 (XVIII, 84), 



§ So in two Latin Chroniclers quoted by Lalanne in his Eecherches sur le Feu Gre- 

 geois, p. 30 ;— " Inextinguibilem ab omni re prseter acetum" (Ditmar). — " Grsecum 

 ignem qui nullo praeter aceti liquore exstinguitur." (Luitprand.) A very old writer on 

 military affairs, iEneas Poliorceticus, (about 360, B. C.) says (ch. 34) that the fire 



MM 



v_ 



