Marriage is generally celebrated at the hunting season, probably because the stores of food and drink are secured for that time, and there is always plenty of food for the marriage feast. Among them prevails the custom of carrying off the bride. The bridegroom snatches up the girl and runs off with her, pursued by a number of young women who try to snatch her from him, or at least pretend to do so. He, however, is protected by twenty or thirty young men, who keep him and his burden in their midst, and do their best to shield him from the bamboos, stones, and other missiles which are hurled at him by the women. When he reaches the boundaries of his own village, he is supposed to have won his bride, while the assailing party scamper at full speed to their own dwellings.
BOWS AND QUIVER. (From my Collection.)
(See [page 1401].)
CHAPTER CXLIX.
INDIA—Continued.
WEAPONS.
THE GHOORKA TRIBE AND THEIR FAVORITE WEAPON — BLADE AND CURVED HANDLE OF THE “KOOKERY” — MODE OF STRIKING WITH IT — THE ADDITIONAL KNIVES — MAKING “WOOTZ” STEEL — FIGHTING A TIGER — THE HUNTER’S NECKLACE — ROBBERS OF INDIA — THE BURGLAR, THE BURROWER — THE PURSE CUTTER — AN INGENIOUS THEFT — STRANGE MODE OF ESCAPING OBSERVATION — VARIOUS BOWS — THE PELLET BOW AND ITS DOUBLE STRING — THE REVERSED BOW AND MODE OF USING IT — STRINGING THE BOW — THE VARIOUS ARROWS — ARMOR AND CHAIN MAIL — SIR HOPE GRANT’S SPECIMEN — INDIAN SWORDS AND MODE OF USING THEM — VARIOUS DAGGERS — THE “CHAKRA” OR QUOIT WEAPON.
One of the hill tribes, called the Ghoorka tribe, is worthy of notice, if only for the remarkable weapon which they use in preference to any other. It is called the “kookery,” and is of a very peculiar shape. One of the knives, drawn from a specimen in my collection, is given in [illustration No. 2], on page 1403. As may be seen by reference to the drawing, both the blade and hilt are curved. The blade is very thick at the back, my own specimen, which is rather a small one, measuring a little more than a quarter of an inch in thickness. From the back it is thinned off gradually to the edge, which has a curve of its own, quite different to that of the back, so that the blade is widest as well as thickest in the middle, and tapers at one end toward the hilt, and at the other toward the point. The steel of which the blade is formed is of admirable temper, as is shown by the fact that my specimen, which, to my knowledge, has not been cleaned for thirty years, but has been hung upon the wall among other weapons, is scarcely touched with rust, and for the greater part of its surface is burnished like a mirror. Indeed, on turning it about, I can see reflected upon its polished surface the various objects of the room. The handle is made after a very remarkable fashion, and the portion which forms the hilt is so small that it shows the size of the hand for which it was intended. This smallness of hilt is common to all Indian swords, which cannot be grasped by an ordinary English soldier. My own hand is a small one, but it is too large even for the heavy sabre or “tulwar,” while the handle of the kookery looks as if the weapon were intended for a boy of six or seven years old. Indeed, the Ghoorkas are so small, that their hands, like those of all Indian races, are very delicate, about the same size as those of an English boy of seven. The point of the kookery is as sharp as a needle, so that the weapon answers equally well for cutting or stabbing. In consequence of the great thickness of the metal, the blade is exceedingly heavy, and it is a matter of much wonder how such tiny hands as those of the Ghoorkas can manage so weighty a weapon, which seems almost as much beyond their strength as does the Andamaner’s gigantic bow to the dwarfish man who wields it. It may be imagined that a blow from such a weapon as this must be a very terrible one. The very weight of the blade would drive it half through a man’s arm, if it were only allowed to fall from a little height. But the Ghoorkas have a mode of striking which resembles the “drawing” cut of the broadsword, and which urges the sharp edge through flesh and bone alike.
Before passing to the mode in which the kookery is used, I may mention that it is not employed for domestic purposes, being too highly valued by the owner. For such purposes two smaller knives are used, of very similar form, but apparently of inferior metal. These are kept in little cases attached to the side of the kookery-sheath, just as is the case with the knives attached to a Highlander’s dirk, or the arrangement of the Dyak sword, which has already been described in the article upon Borneo. There is also a little flat leathern purse, with a double flap. This is pointed like a knife-sheath, and is kept in a pocket of its own fastened upon the larger sheath.
In the [illustration] the kookery is shown with all its parts. Fig. 1 shows the kookery in its scabbard, the top of the purse and the handles of the supplementary knives being just visible as they project from the sheaths. At Fig. 2 the kookery itself is drawn, so as to show the peculiar curve of the blade and the very small handle. Fig. 3 represents the purse as it appears when closed, and Figs. 4 and 5 are the supplementary knives. My own specimen, which, as I have already mentioned, is a small one, measures fifteen inches from hilt to point in a straight line, and twenty-one inches if measured along the curve of the back. Its weight is exactly twelve ounces. The knife is a very plain one, no ornament of any kind being used, and the maker has evidently contented himself with expending all his care upon the blade, which is forged from the celebrated “wootz” steel.
This steel is made by the natives in a very simple but effectual manner. After smelting the iron out of magnetic ore, the Indian smith puts small pieces of it in a crucible, and mixes little bits of wood with them. He then covers the crucible with green leaves and plenty of clay, and puts it in his simple furnace. The furnace being lighted, a constant blast of air is driven through it for about three hours, at the expiration of which time the iron, now converted into cast-steel, is found in the form of a small cake at the bottom of the crucible. Wootz steel was at one time much used in England, and great numbers of these cakes were imported.
In the hands of an experienced wielder this knife is about as formidable a weapon as can be conceived. Like all really good weapons, its efficiency depends much more upon the skill than the strength of the wielder, and thus it happens that the little Ghoorka, a mere boy in point of stature, will cut to pieces a gigantic adversary who does not understand his mode of onset. The Ghoorka generally strikes upward with the kookery, possibly in order to avoid wounding himself should his blow fail, and possibly because an upward cut is just the one that can be least guarded against.