40 R Maelagan— On Early Asiatic Fire Weapons. \^ 1 



combustible had come to be used in it in place of naphtha.^ Beckmann * 

 bis "History of Inventions and Discoveries/' quotes an account of'th 

 Greek Fire at the capture of Thessalonica by the Saracens in A. D. 904 

 which says that it was blown into the wooden works of the besieged b 

 means of tubes. f A number of passages mentioning this use of tubes f 

 discharging Greek Fire, in the same century and after, are given by M 

 Lalanne in his Becherches sur le Feu Gregeois. % And he surmises that 

 certain tubes which Chateaubriand mentions having seen in a collection of 

 old arms shown to him at Jerusalem, may have been specimens of the im- 

 plements used for Greek Fire. § But the idea seems to be of much older date 

 than any of the middle age instances referred to.Jj 



There is nothing to show or suggest that in any of the instances in 

 which tubes were used for Greek Fire, the combustible matter they contained 

 was employed to furnish the motive force, or otherwise than as the material 

 for the fire to be thrown. It is certain that this fire material was frequent. 

 ly or generally liquid, and that this liquid was naphtha or petroleum. It 

 appears also that other inflammable ingredients were sometimes added • and 

 that frequently the dry materials, including one or more of the ingredients 

 of gunpowder, were used alone. 



Of reports or noises accompanying fire missiles, which have induced the 

 supposition that something of the nature of cannon was used, or shells 

 exploding by means of gunpowder, the most familiar illustration in India 

 is that given in the account by Firishtah of Mahmiid's battle with Anandpal 

 near Pashawar, in A. D. 1008, when the elephant on which the Hindu 

 prince rode was alarmed by the sudden noise and fled. The notice of this 

 passage in Firishtah gave occasion to the interesting Note by Sir Henry 

 Elliot, in the original first volume of his " Index to the Muhammadan His- 



* As we continue to call a thing a chandelier when the lights it carries are no longer 

 candles ; and a volume, when it has ceased to be a volumen, &c., &c. The very word tor- 

 mentum, which G-olius here uses, is another illustration. 



f Hist, oflnv. and Disc, II, 249. The quotation is from Leo Allatius, cir. 1650. 



% In the times of the Emperor Leo, about A. D. 900 ; of Const. Porphyr., A. D. 

 950; Alexius, A. D. 1100, &c, 7re/n rod vypov irvpbs rov Slot toov crify&vcav ixp epofiwov, 

 &c., &c, pp. 17,24, &c. Lalanne quotes also a Russian Chronicle of the tenth century, 

 which speaks of "une espece de feu aile" which was discharged "au moyen d'un cer- 

 tain tuyau," p. 29. 



§ Lalanne, p. 59. " Je remarquai encore des tubes de fer de la longueur et de la 

 grosseur d'un canon de fusil, dont j'ignore l'usage." Chat., Ltineraire, II, 313. 



|| Casaubon, in his Notes on iEneas Poliorceticus, after noticing various ancient 

 fire missiles, says " Observo etiam, ad liquida injicienda, qu^e Philo appellat vypa T€6ep- 

 fiacTfi&a, prselongis interdum usos fistulis, quas idem nominat iverrtpasr This Philo 

 wrote in the third century B. C. 



