20 MILITARY SCIENCES. 



day their emblem. PL l,fig. 11, shows two armed Gauls. The Prankish 

 helmet is merely a rude cap of ox-hide, with an iron crest {pi. 9, fig. 13). 



The sword {fig. 14), like the Roman, short, broad, and pointed, but with- 

 out cross-guard, was only for stabbing, and the spear with a broad, four- 

 edged head, was provided with a loop of cord or leather. Figs. 15-21 show 

 specimens of German weapons. The shields were of wicker-work and 

 quadrangular, somewhat vaulted, in figs. 15 and 16 a, adorned with an 

 inlaid or interwoven pattern, or they were of wood, bound at the edge with 

 metal, as fig. 16 h. The spears {figs. 17 and 18) resembled the Roman, 

 but had shorter heads, and the swords were also like the Roman, only con- 

 siderably longer, as much as three feet in length ; figs. 20 and 21 give 

 specimens. The sword was carried on the left thigh by a chain over the 

 shoulder. The Germans were often armed besides with a heavy club of 

 oak wood {fig. 19) ; helmets they had none, as in war they wore usually 

 for a cloak the skin of some wild beast, the head of which was made 

 to cover their own {pL 7, figs. 6 and 7). Sometimes they wore also a kind 

 of sleeved cuirass of leather, with breeches and half-boots of the same, but 

 often they marched naked to battle. 



The kindred race to the German, the Saxon, afterwards Anglo-Saxon 

 and Anglo-Dane, varied little from the Germans in their equipment, where- 

 fore we shall at once insert them here. PL 9, figs. 32, 35, 36, and 37, show 

 Anglo-Saxon helmets, which were nothing more than caps of thick leather, 

 studded here and there with iron, and sometimes provided with a narrow 

 visor, to protect the face from sun and rain. The Anglo-Danish helm {fig 

 43) is nothing more. The Anglo-Saxon cuirass {figs. 33, 34) is a close-fitting 

 leathern jerkin, of several overlapping layers of leather cut scale-shaped., 

 below, and sometimes covering also the shoulder and upper-arm, st-sfig. 34 ; 

 the Anglo-Saxon shield {fig. 32) was oblong, three and a half feet high and 

 three feet broad, after the manner of the Roman, of wood, with iron-bound 

 verge, and boss ; but the Anglo-Danish {fig. 38) was of wood, plated with 

 leather or metal, after the manner of the old Grecian, carved in artistic form 

 and proportionately small, as for the light troops of the Roman army. The 

 Anglo-Saxon sword {fig. 32) and the Anglo-Danish {fig. 44) resembled 

 entirely the broad, short Roman sword ; the spear also {figs. 32, 39, 40) 

 was like theirs in length and strength, but the head was usually barbed, or 

 had tassels of wool, or a kind of cross-guard, which seemed not without use. 

 Instead of the German club, the Anglo-Danes had a mace, as figs. 45 and 

 46, and battle-axes, either edged on one side and pointed on the other, as 

 fig. 41, or an axe formed on both sides, as fig, 42. The Anglo-Saxon 

 horsemen had saddles, Sisfig. 48. 



The Britons had weapons differing in many respects from those above 

 described. The helmets were at first thick leather caps, adorned at the 

 vertex with feathers {figs. 30 and 31) ; afterwards the cap was forged or 

 hammered from metal in the same form and provided with a visor, as pL 3, 

 fig. 38, or with cheek-pieces also, dsfig. 39. 



Of the decorations of the Roman helmet we find not a trace. The 

 shields were circular, scarcely three feet in diameter, often indeed smaller 

 496 



