E. Maclagan — On Early Asiatic Mre Weapons. 



[No, 1, 



The account given by Philostratus of the defence of forts in India by 

 thunderings and lightnings which the defenders had power to discharge on 

 their assailants,* refers, no doubt,— if any real thing is referred to,— -to 

 some description of petroleum missile or Greek Fire. But it is most likely 

 only a reference to the mythical celestial weapons and command over the 

 elements.f Whenever petroleum or naphtha was obtained, its use for hos- 

 tile purposes has been appreciated, and the forms of its application have 

 been various. One of the devices of Iskandar Zul-Karnain, in preparing 

 for encounters with the Hindus, as related by Mir Khwand J was to make a 

 number of hollow images in the form of soldiers, filled with dry wood and 

 naphtha, to be set fire to in the midst of the battle. The great junks of 

 the Chinese in the middle ages carried arms and naphtha to defend them* 

 selves against the pirates of India. § The material used for fire-missiles in 

 China in the beginning of the tenth century was known by the name of the 

 " oil of the cruel fire."|| A recent investigator on the subject of Chinese 

 oils states that the petroleum of Shansi, Lechuen ? and Formosa, is said to 

 have been formerly employed by the Chinese in Greek Fire compositions.^ 

 For use in fire-rafts for destroying other vessels and wooden structures, 

 petroleum is of course very suitable, and has been frequently so used.** And 

 thrown upon ships from a distance, or directly applied in other ways, it well 

 serves the same purpose. ff Bituminous fire shells are noticed by Tasso as 

 •used in the First Crusade (A. D. 1099). H In a descriptive Catalogue of 



as in a translation published in the Calcutta Christian Intelligencer, ' Feb. 1862] and 

 sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or 

 caldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth." Oh. xli 

 19-21. 



* Vit. Apollon. Tyan. II, 14. 



f See Uttara Rama Charitra (in Wilson's Hindu Theatre), pp. 14, 92, 96, &c. 

 J Rauzat-tig-gafd, Shea's translation, p. 400. 

 f Reinaud, Memoir es sur VInde, p. 300. 

 [| Grose's Military Antiquities, II, 309* 



H Dr. F. Porter Smith, on the oils of Chinese Pharmacy and Commerce. Journal of the 

 Pharm. Soc. 1874. (The reference is taken from a newspaper review.) 

 ** lalanne, Feu Gregeois, p. 45, &c, &c. 



ft " At Dely there is a fountain of oil which is said to be unextinguishable when 

 once it is set on fire ; and with which the king of Achen burnt two Portuguese Galleons 

 near Malacca about 8 or 10 years ago/' M. Beaulieus Voyage to the East Indies, A. D. 

 1619 fin Harris's Collection, p. 250). The irresistible rapidity with which timber touch- 

 ed with petroleum is consumed by fire is illustrated in the recent destruction of the 

 Goliath training ship, 



XX Jer. Del. XII, 42 (Fairfax's version) 



Two balls he gave them, made of hollow brass, 

 Wherein enclosed, fire, pitch, and brimstone was, 

 misses the bitumi of the original. 



