220 



ON THE WEAPONS USED 



Hercules and Bacchus, when they overran India, invaded this 

 country also, and having prepared warlike engines, attempted 

 to conquer them ; they in the meanwhile made no show of 

 resistance, appearing perfectly quiet and secure, but upon 

 the enemy's near approach they were repulsed with storms 

 of lightning and thunderbolts hurled upon them from above." 

 In the apocryphal letter which Alexander is said to have 

 written to Aristotle, he describes the frightful dangers to 

 which his army were exposed in India, when the enemies 

 hurled upon them flaming thunderbolts." 



Firdusi ascribed to Alexander this expedient when opposed 

 by Porus. While Sikander, according to the author of the 

 Shah-Nama, was marching against Porus .(Fur) his troops 

 became so frightened when they perceived the numbers of 

 elephant s which Porus was sending against them that Alexander 

 consulted his ministers how to counteract this foe. Their 

 advice was to manufacture an iron man and an iron horse, 

 place the former on the latter, fix the horse on wheels, fill 

 them both with naphtha and propel them towards the 

 elephants, where they would explode with great havoc. 



Such a stratagem is ascribed by the Franciscan monk Johan- 

 nes de Piano Carpini to Prester John when he was fighting 

 against the Tatars. In my monograph on Prester John 

 I have pointed out to what special event it may probably 

 refer. 100 



99 See Philostratos Ta eis rbv Tvavea 'h.iroXXooviov. The words used by Philo- 

 stratos are ftpovrol narco (TTpttyofxevai (II, 14), and i^fipovr-qQevr as avrovs vTrb 

 rwu ao(pa>v (III, 3). — Compare Projectile Weapons of War, pp. 83 and 84. 



100 See Der Presbyter Johannes in Sage und G-eschichte, pp. 93 and 94. 

 " Johannes Presbyter venit contra eos (Tataros) exercitu congregato, et 

 faciens imagines hominum cupreas in sellis posuit supra equos, ponens ignem 

 interius, et posuit homines cum follibus post imagines cupreas supra equos ; 

 et cum multis imaginibus et equis taliter praeparatis venerunt contra 

 praedictos Tartaros ad pugnam ; et cum ad locum proelii pervenissent, 

 istos equos unum juxta alium praemiserunt, viri autem qui erant retro, 

 posuerunt nescio quid ignem qui erat in praedictis imaginibus et cum follibus 

 fortiter sumaverunt ; unde factum est quod ex igne graeco homines combure- 

 bantur et equi, et ex fumo aer est denigratus." 



