1876.] 



R. Maclagan — On Early Asiatic Fire Weapons. 



87 



of the Sire de Joinville's History of St. Louis. " La maniere dn feu gregois 

 estoit tele que il venoit bien devant aussi gros comme un tonnel de verjus, 

 et la queue du feu qui partoit de li, estoit bien aussi grant comme un grant 

 glaive. II f aisoit tele noise au venir, que il sembloit que ce f eust la f oudre du 

 ciel ; il sembloit un dragon qui volast par l'air. Tant getoit grant clarte que 

 Ton veoit parmi l'ost comme se il feust jour, pour la grant foison du feu 

 qui getoit la grant clarte."* This was in Egypt, in 1249. It was dis- 

 charged from the engines called perriere (pierriere) upon the crusaders' 

 cJias-chastiaus, or towers, and against their stockades. Again it is describ- 

 ed as having been thrown by hand, in what we may suppose to have been 

 something like grenades. " Au darrien il amenerent un vilain a pie, qui 

 leur geta troiz foiz feu gregois. L'une des foiz requeilli Guillaume de Boon 

 le pot de feu gregois a sa roelle ; car se il se feust pris a riens sur li, il eust 



este ars."f And again attached to arrows, " si grant foison de pyles 



a tout le feu gregois, que il sembloit que les estoiles du ciel cheissent."| 



Hallam, in noticing Joinville's account of the Greek Fire, calls it " an 

 instrument of warfare almost as surprising and terrible as gunpowder." § 

 And in another place he refers to a frequently-quoted passage of an Arabic 

 work, 1 1 written just about the time of Joinville's first-mentioned experience 

 of Greek Fire, and which mentions, Hallam says, the use of gunpowder in 

 engines of war, " though they may seem to have been rather like our fire- 

 works than artillery." Quoting from Casiri's Latin translation, " serpunt 

 susurrantque scorpiones circumligati ac pulvere nitrato incensi, unde explosi 

 fulgurant ac incendunt," he says " one would be glad to know whether 

 pulvis nitratus is a fair translation." If Mr. Hallam had had the advan- 

 tage of seeing the results of the researches of M.M. Reinaud and Fave, he 

 would (although the translation is shown to be open to objection) have 

 had no occasion to question the literal pulvis nitratus, without coming to 

 the conclusion, as he does, that " there can on the whole be no doubt that 

 gunpowder is meant. "^ The description which follows the passage quoted 

 above is not very different from other accounts of Greek Fire, which indicate 



* L'Historie de Saint Louis, Oh. XLIII. 



f Ibidem, Oh. XLIX. 



% Ibidem, Ch. LXIII, 



§ Middle Ages, I, i., p. 41 (ed. 1860). 



|| In Casiri, Bibl. Arab. Hispan., t. ii, p. 7. (Reference in Hallam.) 



IT Middle Ages, I, 479. M. Eeinaud notices that the word bdriid, used in the ori- 

 ginal of the passage referred to, is applied both to nitre and to gunpowder. He gives 

 the passage in the Arabic, and a corrected translation in French, and adds, " On voit que 

 Casiri, qui traduisait bdroud par pulvere nitrato, et qui ne connaissait pas d'autre pro- 

 priety de la poudre que l'explosion, en a introduit l'idee dans sa traduction. Voulant 

 donner un sens a ce passage, il etait naturellement amene a y voir l'emploi que nous 

 faisons maintenant de la poudre." (Reinaud and Fave, Feu Greg., 67 J 



