The force of such a weapon may be inferred from a remarkable combat that took place some sixty years ago, when the roads were not so safe as they are at present.
A gentleman, who happened to be a consummate master of the sword, was going along the highway at night, and was attacked by two footpads, he having no weapon but a bamboo cane.
One of them he temporarily disabled by a severe kick, and then turned to the other, whom he found to be pretty well as good a swordsman as himself, and to possess a good stick instead of a slight cane. The footpad soon discovered the discrepancy of weapons, and with a sharp blow smashed the cane to pieces, leaving only about eighteen inches in his antagonist’s hand.
Almost instinctively Baron —— sprang under the man’s guard, and dashed the broken cane in his face. The footpad staggered with a groan, put his hands to his face, and ran away, followed by his companion, who did not desire another encounter with such an antagonist. When the victor reached his destination, he found that the footpad’s face must have been torn to pieces, for the clefts of the split bamboo were full of scraps of skin, flesh, and whisker hair.
It is worthy of notice that the combination of the club and the dagger is common to savage and civilised life, as may be seen by reference to the illustration in page 53, where the wooden club of savage warfare and the metal club and maces of civilisation are alike armed with a piercing as well as a bruising apparatus. Mostly the dagger is on the head of the mace or battle-axe, but, in some cases, the end of the handle acts as the dagger, and the head as the axe or mace.
A very good example of this formation is found in the wooden battle-axe, or “Patoo,” of New Zealand, a weapon which has been long superseded by modern fire-arms. A specimen in my possession is rather more than five feet in length. The head is just like that of an ordinary axe, while the handle tapers gradually to the end, where it terminates in a sharp spike. In actual combat the point was used much more than the axe.
WAR AND HUNTING.
CHAPTER II.
POISON, ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE.—PRINCIPLE OF THE BARB.
Poison as applied to Weapons.—Its limited Use.—Animal and Vegetable Poisons.—Animal Poisons.—The Malayan Dagger, or Kris, and two Modes of poisoning it.—The Bosjesmans and their Arrows.—Snake Poison and its Preparation.—The Pseudo-barb.—The Poison-grub, or N’gwa.—Simple Mode of Preparation, and its terrible Effects.—Vegetable Poisons.—The Upas of Malacca.—The Wourali Poison of Tropical America.—Mode of preparing the various Arrows.—The Fan Tribe of West Africa, and their poisoned Arrows.—Subcutaneous Injection.—Examples in Nature.—The Poison-fang of the Serpent.—Sting of the Bee.—Tail of the Scorpion.—Fang of the Spider.—Sting of the Nettle.—Exotic Nettles and their Effects.—The Barb and its Developments.—The “Bunday” of Java.—Reversed Barbs of Western Africa.—Tongans and their Spears.—The Harpoon and Lernentoma, or Sprat-sucker.—The Main Gauche, or Brise-épée.
ANOTHER advance, if it may so be called, lay in increasing the deadly effect of the weapons by arming them with poison.
Without the poison, it was necessary to inflict wounds which in themselves were mortal; but with it a comparatively slight wound would suffice for death, providing only that the poison mixes with the blood. It is worthy of notice that cutting weapons, such as swords and axes, seldom, if ever, have been envenomed, the poison being reserved for piercing weapons, such as the dagger, the spear, and the arrow.