Fig. 150.—Gold Coast.
Amongst the Chelidonian blades proper I do not include the double blade. A fair specimen of the latter is the Orissa Sword[448]: two slightly oval forms spring from the same hilt, but separate throughout their length. Another shape is found upon the Gold Coast: the blades are disposed like the astronomical sign of Aries, and its only use is to slice off noses and ears.[449] The offending member is placed at the commissure, and an upward shear effects the mutilation. I reserve for a future page the ‘split Swords,’ two blades in one scabbard, which were used in mediæval Europe, and which have been preserved in China.
To conclude this long and technical chapter. The Sword should be tightly mounted and well shouldered-up before and behind, leaving no interval between hilt and blade. The grip must be firm, and the tang secured either by rivets or, better still, by a screw at the pommel: if this be neglected, the weapon will not deliver a true edge. In trials both back and edge should be repeatedly struck with force upon a wooden post. Should the handle show no sign of loosening, and the blade ring with the right sound, it is a sign that the mounting is satisfactory: the reverse is the case if the blow jars or stings the hand: this suggests that the cut will not prove efficient.
Note.—The type and model of the straight blade is the form of Rapier which we call the Toledo. It is probably derived from the Spatha or long Sword of the Roman cavalryman; but it assumed its present perfect shape during the reign of Charles Quint (a.d. 1493–1519). The exemplar of the curved blade is the so-called ‘Damascus’ sabre, dating probably from the early days of El-Islam (seventh century), when Eastern armies were chiefly composed of light Bedawi horsemen. Of these in Part II.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SWORD IN ANCIENT EGYPT AND IN MODERN AFRICA.
The present state of our history shows us nothing anterior to Egypt in the civilisation of Language, of Literature, of Science, Art and Arms. We must now modify and modernise the antiquated and obsolete saying—‘ex Oriente lux’—the fancy that illumination came from India, when the reverse is true. The light of knowledge dawned and dayed not in the East, but in the South, in the Dark Continent, which is also the High Continent.[450] Nor can we any longer admit that
Westward the course of empire takes its way.
As Professor Lepsius teaches us, ‘In the oldest times within the memory of man, we know of only one advanced culture; of only one mode of writing, and of only one literary development, viz. those of Egypt.’ Karl Vogt, a man who has the courage to say what he thinks, bluntly states: ‘Our civilisation came not from Asia, but from Africa.’ For our origin we must return to