70 nature's teachings. 



dragging knights off their horses. It was of steel instead of 

 wood, and the place of the thorns was taken by two movable 

 barbs, working on hinges, and kept open by springs. When 

 a thrust was made at the knight's neck the barbs gave way, so 

 as to allow the prongs to envelop the throat, and they then 

 sprang back again, preventing the horseman from disengaging 

 himself. This weapon is technically named a " catchpoll." 



An illustration of one of these weapons will be given on 

 another page. 



The right-hand central figure is an arrow from Western 

 Africa. In a previous illustration (page 65) a head of one of 

 these arrows is given on rather a larger scale, so as to show 

 the very peculiar barbs. These are of such a nature that when 

 they have well sunk into the body they cannot be withdrawn, 

 but must be pushed through, and drawn out on the opposite 

 side. This is drawn from one of my own specimens. 



In some cases, with an almost diabolical ingenuity, the 

 native arrow-maker has set on a couple of similar barbs, 

 directed towards the point, so that the weapon can neither be 

 pushed through nor drawn back. One of these arrows is shown 

 in the illustration, but, for want of space, the artist has placed 

 the opposing barbs too near each other. 



In some parts of Southern Africa a similar weapon was 

 used for securing a prisoner, the barbed point being thrust 

 down his throat and left there. If it were pushed through the 

 neck it killed him on the spot, and if it remained in the 

 wound the man could not eat nor drink, and the best thing 

 for him was to die as soon as he could. 



With similar ingenuity, the Tongans and Samoans made 

 their war- spears with eight or nine barbs, and, before going 

 into action, used to cut the wood almost through between 

 each barb, so that when the body was pierced, the head, with 

 several of the barbs, was sure to break off and leave a large 

 portion in the wound. In Mariner's well-known book there is 

 an admirable account of the mode employed by a native 

 surgeon for extracting one of these spear-heads. So common 

 was this weapon that every Tongan gentleman carried a many- 

 barbed spear about five feet long, and used it either as a 

 walking-stick or a weapon. It is needless to say that this 

 spear is almost an exact copy of the tail-bone of the Sting- 



