1876.] R. Mackgan— On Early Asiatic Mre Weapons. 53 



Arabic Military books,* mention is made of a peculiar mode of carrying 

 fire into a fight, on the face of shields furnished with large hollow bosses 

 which were filled with naphtha and had matches applied at one or more little 

 apertures. The device seems rather stupid and impractical, but these 

 shields are said to have been used in the battle before Mecca, at the attack 

 on that place by Hajjaj-bin-Yiisuf, before referred to, in A. H. 73 (A. B. 

 692.) • Another fo*m of combination of offensive with defensive arms has 

 been devised in more modern times, which is not much better. The Yar- 

 kandis, as we learn from Sir D. Forsyth's account of his embassy, have 

 "large circular shields gaudily painted with dragons and other hideous mon- 

 sters on one side, and concealing, on the other, a gun-barrel set in a socket 

 of wood, and serving also as a handle whereby to carry the shield, "f 



It has been a question whether the scorpions, often mentioned as offen- 

 sive missiles, are to be taken in their literal meaning, or as representing 

 some kind of actively inflammable preparation, called by this name on ac- 

 count of the sharp style of its attack and painful nature of its effects ; just 

 as some of the engines used in war bear the names of familiar animals with 

 reference either to their form and appearance or to their mode of applica- 

 tion.! One of these engines was called a scorpion. § This question has 

 been discussed by Sir Henry Elliot in the volume before referred to,|| in 

 connection with the account in the Tdrihh-i-Alfi of the capture of the city 

 of Nasibin, in the time of the Khalifah 'Omar, in the seventh year after the 

 death of Muhammad, when large black scorpions are said to have been made 

 use of in the attack. In support of the supposition that " a combustible 

 composition formed of some bituminous substances" may have been meant, 

 he observes that the ancient Indian weapon or rocket called satagni, the 

 hundred- slayer, also signifies a scorpion. And the fireworks mentioned in 

 the book translated by Casiri, which gives occasion to Hallam's query about 

 thepulvis nitratus, are described as being " in the form of scorpions". But 

 though the name has been applied to fireworks and fire missiles as well as 

 to a mechanical engine of war, yet seeing the distinct mention of these 

 animals in many instances, (and of other offensive animal missiles thrown 

 into besieged places) there need be no difficulty in accepting the literal 

 interpretation. If the situation of the city of Nisibis (with reference to 

 the capture of which place with the aid of scorpions the matter has been 



* Fihrist al-kutub fi 'ilm il-harb, p. 64. 



f Heport of a Mission to YarTcand, in 1873, p. 13. 



X Testudo, Musculus, Aries, Onager, Scorpio, Chat, Sow, &c, and, ironically, the 

 Bride ('arus), as tender an instrument, in its way, as the maiden in our own country. 



§ Said to have been invented by the Cretans. Plin. N. IT., VII, 57. 



|| Bibl. Index to the Moh. Hist, of India, Calcutta, 1849, 146, 163. Dowson's Edi- 

 tion, V, 152, 550. 



