Chapter XXVI: Conclusion (7)

[935] This is materialism pure and simple; but all the teaching of modern science points to the material. The mysterious ‘life’ is no longer ‘vital power’; it simply represents the sum total of the energies and protoplasm. ‘Life is a property of protoplasm or bioplasm, and is the latest product of thought and research.’ And I may add that Consciousness, like Will, is a property of life in certain of its forms; a state and condition of cerebral and other atoms; the mere consequence of hitherto unappreciated antecedents.

[936] Florus, ii. 3.

[937] _Bronze_, &c. p. 297. From _Aarbög. f. Nord. Oldk._ 1879, pl. i.

[938] _Bronze_, &c., p. 298. From Bastian and A. Voss, _Die Bronze-Schwerter des K. Mus. zu Berlin_, 1878, p. 56.

[939] _Bronze_, &c., p. 299, from Von Sacken and Lindeschmit’s _Alterthümer_. The first finds by Herr Namsauer in 1846–64 were 6,000 articles from 993 graves.

[940] I have already noticed the copper Ensis and coppered shield attributed by Virgil (_Æn._ viii. 74) to the people of Abella, an Italian district under Turnus.

[941] _Bronze_, &c., p. 277. The author also notices the small handles of bronze Swords, ‘a fact which seems to prove that the men who used these swords were but of moderate stature’ (_Prehistoric Times_, p. 22). He denies their being very small, and he justly believes that the expanding part of the hilt was intended to be within the grasp of the hand. I have already explained that the hand was purposely confined in order to give more momentum to the cut.

[942] _Bronze_, &c., p. 297; taken from Gastaldi, Pellegrini and Gozzadini. The author remarks (p. 287) that some of the bronze daggers from Italy seem also to have had their hilts cast upon the blades in which the rivets were already fixed. This is not unfrequent with the Sword, and the object seems mere imitation; like the Hauranic stone-doors, panelled as if to pass for wood.

[943] _Bronze_, &c., p. 283, we find that the British Museum contains a specimen. _Catalog. Italy_, p. 28.

[944] _Bronze_, &c., ibid., quoting from _Numm. Vet. Ital. Descript._, pl. xii.

[945] See chap. vi.

[946] _De Garrul._

[947] _De Ferro_, i. 195.

[948] Lib. xliv. 3. Martial also alludes (i. 49; iii. 12, &c.) to the metallic wealth of his native province.

[949] Pliny (xxxi. 4, 41) also notices the Salo or River Bilbilis (Xalon); and the Celtiberian town of the same name, now Bombola, the birthplace of the poet Martial, is near Calatayud (Kala’at el-Yahúd = Jew’s Fort), or Job’s Castle. Of the Chalybes I have already spoken.

[950] _Roman Archæology_, by Angelo Maio.

[951] The words Κέλται, Γαλάται, Γάλλο (meaning Armati, pugnaces, Kämpfer, fighters), evidently derive not from Coille, a word, but from the old word Gal (battle), Gala (arms). The name suited their natures; they were never at peace, and their bravery was proverbial: the Greeks called it Κελτικὸν θράσος = Keltic daring.

[952] Cladibas or Cladias = _gladius_. I have noticed the shape when speaking of the Hallstadt finds.

[953] Polyænus, _Strategemata_; Dion. Halicar. xiv. chap. 13.

[954] Plutarch (_De Cam._ cap. xxvii.) also arms the Gauls, when attacking the Capitol, with the Kopis. ‘The first to oppose them was Manlius.... Meeting two enemies together, he parried the cut of one who raised a Kopis (κοπίδα) by hacking off his right hand with a Gladius’ (ξίφος). I presume that ‘Kopis’ is here used for the _pugio_, dirk, or shorter sword. Borghesi _Œuvres Complètes_, vol. ii. pp. 337–387, says: ‘In use and form, in grip and in breadth of blade, the Kopis much resembles our _Sciabla_, (Sabre).’ But its comparison with the falx and pruning hook and a medal of Pub. Carisius suggest a substantial difference: while the broadsword is edged on the convex side, the Kopis had a sharpened concave. Count Gozzadini, like General A. Pitt-Rivers, compares the Kopis with the Khanjar or Yataghan, and quotes Xenophon (_Cyrop._ ii. 1, 9; vi. 2, 10) to prove that it was peculiar to Orientals. I have traced the word to the Egyptian Khopsh or Khepsh, and repeat my belief that it is the old Nilotic sickle-blade with a flattened curve. But, as might be expected in the case of so old a word, the weapon to which it was applied may have greatly varied in size and shape.

[955] Brennus is evidently a congener of the Welsh _brenhin_ (the king). The Senones have left their name in Illyrian Segna, once a nest of pirates and corsairs, south of Fiume the Beautiful. I shall notice them in a future page.

[956] Livy, xxii. 46.

[957] _Bell. Gall._ iii. 13; vii. 22.

[958] Lib. x. cap. 32.

[959] Lib. v. cap. 30.

[960] See chapters viii. and xii. Here the word is evidently applied generically to a straight two-edged broadsword, about 1 mètre long. In the Middle Ages the weapon gave rise to many curious varieties, as the _Spatha pennata_ and the _Spatha in fuste_.

[961] According to Vegetius (ii. 15) the Saunion was the light javelin of the Samnites, with a shaft 3½ feet long, and an iron head measuring 5 inches. Thus it would resemble the Roman _pilum_. But Diodorus evidently means another and a heavier weapon which could hardly be thrown. Meyrick and Jähns (p. 390) do not solve the difficulty.

[962] Lib. iv. 4, § 3.

[963] _De Bell. Pers._

[964] The Northumberland Stone in Montfaucon (vol. iv. part 1, p. 37) shows a Gaul wearing sword and dagger on either side.

[965] In Athenæus, lib. xiv., the celebrated philosopher called the Apamæan or the Rhodian, a contemporary of Pompey and Cicero, left, amongst other works, one called Τέχνη τακτικὴ (_de Acie instruenda_).

[966] Lib. vii. cap. 10. It is evident that the Duello did not, as many authors suppose, arise with the Kelts. All we can say is that they may have originated in Europe the sentiment called _pundonor_ and the practice of defending it with the armed hand. The idea was unknown to the classics; and, with the exception, perhaps, of the Arabs, it is still ignored by the civilised Orientals of our day, especially by the Moslems.

[967] Lib. ii. caps. 28, 30, and 33.

[968] Simply meaning Spearmen. Gaisate = _hastatus_ from Gaisa (_gæsum_), the Irish _gai_, any spear. Isidore (_Gloss._) translates ‘Gessum’ by ‘hasta vel jaculum Gallicè, βολίς.’ The word survives in the French _guisarme_, _gisarme_, &c. The Gæsum probably had a kind of handle and a defence for the hand.

[969] Lib. xxii. cap. 46.

[970] Lib. xxxviii. 21.

[971] The naked bodies and narrow shields are well shown in the battle-scene on the Triumphal Arch of Orange (Jähns, Plate 29).

[972] Borghesi (Tonini’s _Rimini_, &c., p. 28 and Tables A 3 and B 6) makes one of these gladii a ‘Kopis.’

[973] Lib. v. cap. 30.

[974] The cavalry was organised in the Trimarkisia (three marka, or horses) composed of the ‘honestior’ (afterwards the knight), and the clients (squires). The host that attacked Hellas, under Brennus, had 20,400 horsemen to 752,000 foot.

[975] The pattern is almost universal. Moorcroft found it in the Himalayas, and I bought ‘shepherd’s plaid’ in Unyamwezi, Central Africa.

[976] The first use of tattooing was to harden the skin, a defence against weather. The second (and this we still find throughout Africa) was to distinguish nations, tribes, and families.

[977] ‘Galli bracchas deposuerunt et latum clavum sumpserunt.’ Diodorus Sic. (v. 30) has βράκας; in Romaic βράχι; in Italian _braghe_, Germ. _Brüche_. Our word ‘breech-es’ or ‘Breek-s’ is a double plural; ‘breek’ being the plur. of the A. S. _broc_, a brogue. Aldus and other old writers mistranslate the _bracchæ_ by plaid, or upper garment. Jähns more justly renders _sagum_ by plaid (p. 431).

[978] Livy, xxxviii. 24.

[979] Italy has declared herself _Una_. But without considering a multitude of origins, one for almost every province, she is peopled in our modern day by two races, contrasting greatly with each other. The Po is the frontier, dividing the Græco-Latin Italians to the south from the Gallic and Frankish Italians (Milanese, Piedmontese, &c.) to the north. The latter, originally Barbari, are the backbone of the modern kingdom: the Southerners are the weak point.

[980] _Bell. Gall._ vi. 24.

[981] Jähns (in his Plates 27–30) unites ‘Kelten und Germanien, Germanien und Kelten.’

[982] _De Mor. Germ._, cap. 6.

[983] So we find the god Tyr or Tuisco (regent of Tuesday), the Monthu or Mars of the North, figured in the Runes as a barbed spear ᛏ (resembling the planetary emblem of Mars). He afterwards became the Sword-god. From the Tyr-rune is derived ᛠ Er (= hêru, the sword), or Aer, which resembles the Greek ἄορ, and which Jacob Grimm connects with Ἄρης, _æs_ and _Eisen_ (Jähns, p. 14).

[984] The older derivation is from _ferrea_. Jähns (p. 407) gives a host of others—_Bram_ (thorn, bramble); _Pfriem_ (punch, awl); _Brame_ (a border, edging); _ramen_ (to aim, strike), &c., &c.

[985] _Arms_, &c., p. 419.

[986] _Annals_, ii. cap. 14.

[987] _De Mor. G._ cap. 6.

[988] The _steendysser_ of Denmark, dolmens of France, and cromlechs of England.

[989] P. 416, Pl. xxviii. 4. In p. 417 he gives a list of many bronze-finds.

[990] Tacit. _Annals_, ii. 14.

[991] Cap. 42 and 6.

[992] So the Longobards may be Long-halberts, and the Franks Francisca-men.

[993] Vegetius (ii. 15) makes them use ‘gladii majores quas Spathas vocant,’ and Isidore (68, 6) says that the _gladii_ were ‘utraque parte acuti.’

[994] In Scandinavian, the noblest of the Germanic tongues, _hjalt_; in O. Germ, _helza_; Ang. S. _helt_, _hielt_, and in Mid. Germ. _helze_, _gehilze_ (Jähns, p. 419).

[995] Jähns (p. 419) has three kinds of hilts. The oldest is the crescent, noticed above (fig. 293); it is adorned with spirals and various figures. The second, which seems to be more general in the Sahs, or short weapon, has in the place of pommel a crutch or crescent, with the horns more or less curved, and either disunited or joined by a cross-bar. Here again spirals were disposed upon the planes: we shall see them highly developed in the Scandinavian weapons of a later date. The third hilt was a kind of tang, continuing the blade, and fitted with rounded edges for making fast wood, horn, or bone: it had generally a bulge in mid-handle. The pommel proper is little developed in these Swords.

[996] ‘Sahs’ seems to have an alliance with the Latin ‘saxum’ (Jähns, p. 8, quoting Grimm). ‘Hamar’ (hammer) had the same meaning. From ‘sax’ we may probably derive the Zacco-sword of the Emperor Leo (_Chronicle_): ‘Item fratrem nostrum Ligonem cum zaccone vulneravit.’ The Laws of the Visigoths mention both weapons, long and short: ‘plerosque verò scutis, spatis, scramis’ (battle-axes?) ‘.... instructos habuerit.’ ‘Nimith euere saxes’ (take to your knife-swords), said Hengist, and the oaths ‘Meiner Six!’ (by my dirk), and ‘Dunner-Saxen’ (thunder sword) in Lower Saxony, are not forgotten.

[997] I have spoken of the Scramasax in chap. v. Demmin (p. 152) and others deduce ‘scrama’ (broadsword) from ‘scamata,’ the line traced on the ground between two Greek combatants(!). Hence, too, he would derive ‘scherma’ and ‘escrime’—fencing. Others prefer ‘scaran’ (to shear), which gave rise to the German ‘schere’ (scissors), and our ‘shears’ and ‘shear-steel.’ The word, however, is evidently a congener of the Germ. ‘schirmen,’ to protect, defend.

Jähns (p. 418) observes that the Sahs varied greatly in size. Some authorities make it a Mihhili Mezzir (muchel knife), a large _cultellus_. But the Frisian Asega-buch shows it to be a murderous weapon, forbidden to be worn in peace. The finds yield at times a dirk, and at times a broadsword; such, for instance, are the Copenhagen Scramsahs, 90 centimètres long, and that of Fronstetten, which, though imperfect, weighed 4·5 lbs. The British Museum contains a fine specimen of the Scramasax with engraved Runes.

[998] P. 421. Pl. xxviii. 15.

[999] The word is the Ang. Sax. _dolc_, a wound, which thus gave a name to the weapon that wounded.

[1000] _Bronze_, pp. 261–63. Figs. 329 and 330.

[1001] _Germ._ 6.

[1002] Jähns (p. 439) quotes Asclepiodotus (vii. 3) and Ælian (xviii. 4), who describe the _cuneus_ as Scythian and Thracian, _i.e._ barbarous. Unfortunately Jähns also cites the ‘Boar’s head’ of the Laws of Menu (Houghton’s _Manava-Dharma Shastra_, vii. 187), _in the eighth century_ B.C.; Menu being centuries after Tacitus. I have noticed that the disposal of our chessmen shows the Hindú form of attack, the infantry in front, the horse and elephants (castles) on either wing, and the Rajah or Commander-in-chief in the centre and not in front.

[1003] In its purest form the Standard-bearer stood alone at the apex, as Ingo in King Odo’s battle at Mons Panchei (Montpenssier), A.D. 892.

[1004] ‘Quodque præcipuum fortitudinis incitamentum est, non casus, nec fortuita conglobatio turmam aut cuneum facit, sed familiæ et propinquitates’ (Tacit. _Germ._ 7).

[1005] _Nat. Hist._, iv. 14.

[1006] _In Mario_, 23.

[1007] In later times they were carefully cleaned for another object, to show their Runic inscriptions.

[1008] Malet’s _Introduction to the History of Denmark_.

[1009] Pliny, iv. 14. Procop. _Bell. Vand._ i. 1.

[1010] In O. Germ. Sper = hasta, lancea; Sperilîn = lanceola, sagitta; Ang. Sax. Sper, Engl. spear; Germ. Speer. The word seems to be a congener of Sparre, spar. Less commonly used is Spiess = hasta, cuspis; Scand. Spjot; O. Germ. Speoz, Spioz; Ang. Sax. spietu; Fr. espié, espiel, espiet, espieu; Ital. spiedo; Engl. spit. It seems to ally with the Lat. spina, and the Germ. Spitze (Jähns, p. 413).

[1011] The peculiar celts, chisels, spear-points, &c., extended over all the peninsula of Jutland, and as far south as Mark Brandenburg (Jähns, p. 6).

[1012] Neither Cæsar nor Tacitus mentions the use of the bow amongst the ancient Gauls and Germans, although the graves yield arrow-heads of stone, bone, and iron.

[1013] Dr. Evans, _Bronze_ &c., p. 299.

[1014] I reserve Scandinavian weapons for Part II.

[1015] _Origins of English History_ (London: Quaritch, 1852).

[1016] The Sword amongst the Anglo-Saxons and the Franks will be described at full length in Part II.

[1017] These are:

No. 1. That Bronze-casting spread from a common centre by conquest
or migration.

No. 2. That each region discovered the art independently, and made
its own implements.

No. 3. That the art was discovered and implements were made in one
spot, whence commerce disseminated them.

No. 4. That the art was diffused from a common centre, but that the
implements were constructed in the countries where they were found.

[1018] _Bronze_, &c., p. 475.

[1019] _Bronze_, p. 473. I would notice that upon the subject of ‘Celts’ the learned author joins issue with the peculiar views of M. de Mortillet, before noticed. _Bronze_, &c., p. 456.

[1020] The three divisions are:

No. 1. Characterised by flat or slight flanged celts and
knife-daggers, found in barrows with stone implements.

No. 2. Age of heavy dagger-blades, flanged celts and tanged
spear-heads, such as those from Arreton Down. In these two the
Sword is unknown.

No. 3. Palstaves, socketed celts (introduced from abroad); true
socketed spear-heads, Swords, and the variety of tools and weapons
found in the hoards of the old bronze-founders.

And a great peculiarity in Britain is the absence of nearly all traces of the Later Bronze Period in graves and barrows.

[1021] Dr. Evans, _Bronze_, &c., p. 300, quoting M. Alexandre Bertrand. For the condition of the Ancient Britons during the Bronze Period, see _ibid._ p. 487.

[1022] In the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres of Paris. (Dr. Evans, _Bronze_, &c., p. 20).

[1023] ‘On the True Assignation of the Bronze Weapons,’ _Trans. Ethn. Soc._ N. Ser. iv. p. 7).

[1024] _Bronze_, &c., p. 274. See also Introductory Chapter, p. 20.

[1025] See chap. v.

[1026] _Bronze_, &c., p. 417.

[1027] _Bronze_, &c., p. 421. The list of analyses shows lead chiefly in the Irish finds.

[1028] _Geog._ vii. 2.

[1029] _Bell. Gall._ v. 12.

[1030] Evans’s _Coins of the Ancient Britons_. I have not yet read the work.

[1031] Cæsar (iv. 33): ‘Genus hoc est eis essedis pugnæ;’ and he speaks again (v. 15) of _essedarii_. The scythe-car was known to Assyria, Jewry (the _Faldat_ of Nahum ii. 3), and Persia, where Xenophon and Plutarch attribute to it the highest importance; even the pole ended in a lance. It became a favourite with all Keltic peoples. At Sentinum (B.C. 296) the Gauls almost defeated the Romans by suddenly throwing on a force of one thousand ‘esseda currusque.’ The Tectosages, when engaged with Antiochus Soter in Phrygia (B.C.), ranged in front of their attack 240 scythe-cars, some with two and others with four horses. Antiochus the Great armed his chariots not only with two scythe blades, but also with lances ten cubits long (?), laterally projecting (Livy, xxxvii. 41). The historian also notices the Arab dromedary-riders, ‘archers who carried their swords four cubits (= 6 feet) long, that they might be able to reach the enemy from so great a height.’ When the Gæsatæ crossed the Alps (B.C. 228) they were accompanied by a vast number of war-cars (Polybius, ii. 4, 5 says 20,000 ἁρμαμάξας καὶ συνωρίδας) which did good service at the battle of Telamon. Ossian’s _Fingal_ offers a long description of the war-car and its uses. Many remains of these two-wheeled vehicles have been found in Keltic Europe (Jähns, pp. 394–96).

[1032] _Geog._ iii. 6.

[1033] I cannot but attribute to Italian blood the high and aquiline features which distinguish the Briton from the Northern German; the latter has been intimately mixed with the Slav race, as a glance at the Berlinese suffices to show. Portraits of the Cavalier period explain my meaning. In the Hanoverian times the ‘Roundhead’ again came to the fore, and hence the popular ‘John Bull’ portrayed in the pages of Mr. _Punch_. He is a good working type, but he has not the face to command or to impose.

[1034] _Bronze_, &c., pp. 286–87. It was found in the river Cherwell and it is now in the Museum at Oxford. The first notice was in the _Journ. Anthrop. Inst._, vol. iii. 204.

[1035] _Ibid._ p. 287. The author suggests that it may be foreign.

[1036] _Ibid._ p. 288.

[1037] I have already referred to the bronze dagger from Thebes, now in the British Museum, with its narrow rapier-like blade and broad flat hilt of ivory.

[1038] Dr. Thurnam considered the tanged dagger more modern than that which was attached by rivets in the base of the blade, and his classification is followed by Dr. Evans, _Bronze_, &c., p. 222.

[1039] The most perfect form of the bronze rapier is found in Ireland; of this and of the moulds I shall treat in Part II.

[1040] In _Agric._ cap. 36.

[1041] Montfaucon, _Suppl._ iv., p. 16; Smith, _s. v._ ‘Gladius.’

[1042] ‘Pliny’s Ape.’

[1043] Prof. Rhys, of Oxford.

[1044]

‘These men from horrid woods, a hairy band,
Sends far from earth divided Irish-land.’

[1045] The word ‘Pict,’ says Prof. Rhys, is first applied by a writer of the third century to the people beyond the Northern Wall and on the Solway. It evidently arose from their tattooing. He opines that ‘Scotti’ is of Brythonic origin having the same signification. This is better than the old Scjot (Scjot), the dart which named the Scythæ and the Scoti. The Picts, both of Alban and Ireland, called themselves Cruithing—‘which an Irish Shanachie has rightly explained to mean a people who painted the forms (Crotha, Ir. kꞃoꞇ) of beasts, birds, and fishes on their faces, and not on their faces only, but on the whole of the body.’ Again we find ourselves in

—‘infinita, arcana Africa orrenda.’

LONDON: PRINTED BY
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Transcriber’s Notes: - Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). - Text enclosed by equals is in bold (=bold=). - Blank pages have been removed. - Silently corrected typographical errors. - Hyphenation variations are unchanged. - Sidenotes refer to right page headings, and are relocated to approximately relevant positions in text. - Where possible Unicode fractions have been used. - Fig. 82 measurement corrected, blade width was > length.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Book of the Sword, by Richard Francis Burton