In the centre ([Fig. 1]) is seen the martial looking helmet, with its slight feather plume. There are often several of these plumes in a helmet, their shafts being adorned with gold and jewels, and placed in sockets projecting from the helmet. In front is seen the flat bar which protects the nose and upper part of the face from a sword cut. This bar slides up and down through a groove for the convenience of the wearer. From the helmet depends a piece of very slight but very strong chain-mail, which falls behind and on either side of the face, and hangs as low as the shoulders, so that, however abruptly the wearer may move his head, the folds of the chain-mail protect his neck. In several of these helmets the links of the mail are gilt, and arranged so as to form patterns, mostly of a diamond shape.
By the side of the helmet ([Fig. 3]) is the curious gauntlet, which extends far up the arm, and has no joint at the wrist. The absence of the joint, unpleasant as it would be to an European swordsman, is no obstacle to the proper use of the sword by the Oriental warrior. If the reader will refer to the figure of the sword (Fig. 6), he will see that the hilt is terminated by a large circular plate of steel. In a specimen in my own collection, this plate is three inches in diameter, so that when the sword is grasped after the European fashion, the plate comes against the wrist, and acts as a fulcrum by which, when a blow is struck, the leverage of the blade forces the sword out of the grasp.
(1.) NECKLACE.
(See [page 1399].)
(2.) KOOKERY.
(See [page 1395].)
(3.) THE CHAKRA, OR QUOIT WEAPON.
(See [page 1406].)
