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I observe that M. Terrien de la Couperie has lately derived the oldest civilisation of China from Chaldæo-Babylonia of the Akkadian Ages, B C. 2400-2300.

123

CHAPTER VII.

THE SWORD: WHAT IS IT?

HAVING now reached the early Iron Age, which ends pre-historic annals, it is advisable to answer the question-'What is a Sword?'

The word a word which, strange to say, has no equivalent in French-is the Scandinavian Svärd (Icel. Sverd); the Danish Sværd; the Anglo-Saxon Sweord and Suerd; the Old German Svert, now Schwert, and the Old English and Scotch Swerd. The westward drift of the Egyptian Sf, Sefi, Sayf, Sfet, and Emsetf, gave Europe its generic term for the weapon. The poetical is 'brand' or 'bronde,' from its brightness or burning; another name is 'laufi,' 'laf,' or 'glaive,' derived through French from the Latin gladius. Of especial modern forms there are the Espadon, the Flamberg, Flammberg, or Flamberge,2 the Stoccado, and the Braquemart; the Rapier and the Claymore, the Skeyne and Tuck, the small-Sword and the fencingfoil, beside other varieties which will occur in the course of the following pages. 'Sword' includes 'Sabre,' which may also derive from the Egyptian through the Assyrian Sibirru and Akkadian Sibir, also written Sapara; our' Sabre' is the Arabic Sayf with the Scandinavian terminativer (Sayf-r). Ménage would derive Sabre from the Armoric Sabrenn: Littré has the Spanish Sable, the Italian Sciabola, Sciabla, and in Venice Sabala, from the German Sable or Säbel, which again identifies with other languages, as the Serb Sablja and the Hungarian Száblya. The chief modern varieties of the curved blade are the Broadsword, the Backsword, the Hanger, and the Cutlass, the Scymitar and Düsack, the Yataghan and the Flissa. These several modifications will be considered in the order of their invention. Lastly the Egyptian 'Sfet' originated through Keltic the word Spata or Spatha3 (Spatarius =a Swordsman) conserved to the present day in the neo-Latin names of the straight foining weapon-espada, espé, espée, épée.

Physically considered, the Sword is a metal blade intended for cutting, thrusting, or cut-and-thrust (fil et pointe). It is usually, but not always, composed of two

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parts. The first and principal is the blade proper (la lame, la lama, die Klinge). Its cutting surface is called the edge (le fil, il filo, die Schärfe), and its thrusting end is the point (la pointe, la punta, die Spitze or der Ort, the latter mostly opposed to the Mund or sheath-mouth).

The second part, which adapts the weapon for readier use, is the hilt, hilts or heft (la manche, la manica, die Hilse or das Heft), whose several sections form a complicated and a prodigiously varied whole. The grip is the outer case of the tang, alias the tongue (la soie, la spina, or il codolo; der Stoss, die Angel, die Griffzunge or der Dorn), the thin spike which projects from the shoulders or thickening of the blade (le talon or l'épaulement, il talone, der Ansatz or die Schulter) at the end opposed to the point. Sometimes there are two short teeth or projections from the angles of the shoulders, and these are called 'the ears' in English, in German, and in the neo-Latin tongues.

The tang, which is of many shapes-long and short, straight-lined or curvilinear, plain or pierced for attachment—ends in the pommel or 'little apple' (le pommeau, il pomolo, der Knauf or Knopf), into which it should be made fast by rivets or screws. The object of this globe, lozenge, or oval of metal is to counterpoise the weight of the blade, to prop the ferient of the hand, and to allow of artistic ornamentation. The grip of wood, bone, horn, ivory, metal, valuable stones, and other materials, covered with skin, cloth, and various substances, whipped round with cord or wire, is protected at the end abutting upon the 'chape'2 or guard proper (la garde, la guardia, die Parirstangen, die Leiste or die Stichblätter) by the hilt-piece, which also greatly varies. It may, however, be reduced to two chief types—the guard against the thrust, and the guard against the cut. The former was originally a plate of metal, flat or curved, circular or oval, affixed to the bottom of the hilt, dividing the shoulders from the tang: in fact, it was a shield in miniature (la coquille, la coccia, das Stichblatt). We still use the term 'basket-hilt,' and apply 'shell' (la coque, la coccia, der Korb or die Schale) to the semicircular hilt-guards-mostly of worked, chased, embossed, or pierced steel— which appear to perfection in the Spanish and Italian rapiers of the sixteenth century. This hilt-plate has dwindled in the French fencing-foil to a lunette, a double oval of bars shaped like a pair of spectacles. In the Italian foil, which preserves the plate, the section of the blade between that and the grip is called

Or 'die Schneide,' the older forms being ekke, egge; while 'valz' was the middle section of the twohanded Sword.

2 Chape,' derived from capa, and a congener of 'cap' and 'cape,' is differently used by authors. Some apply it to the mouthpiece or ring at the top of the sheath; others to the metal crampet, bouterolle, or ferule at the scabbard-tip, and others to the guard-plate. In Durfey (The Marriage-Hater Matched) we find the hilt, the knot, the scabbard,

the chape, the belt, and the buckles' (of a Sword). Skinner explains it as vagina mucro ferreus. Mr. Fairholt defines chape to be the guard plate or crossbar at the junction of grip and hilt. Shakespeare, who knew the Sword, speaks of the chape of his dagger' (All's Well &c. iv. 3) and an old rusty Sword with a broken hilt and chapelesse' (Taming of the Shrew, iii. 2). Commentators mostly explain this by without a catch to hold it.' Dr. Evans (Bronze, &c. chap. viii.) has exhaustively described the bronze chapes (bouterolles) in the British Islands.

the Ricasso (a); the parallel bar is the Vette traversale (b, b); and the two are connected by the archetti d' unione (joining bows, c, c).

The guard against the cut is technically called the crossguard (les quillons, le vette, die Stichblätter). This section is composed of one or more bars projecting from the hilt between tang and blade, and receiving the edge of the adversary's weapon should it happen to glance or to glide downwards. The quillons may be either straight (fig. 109)— that is, disposed at right angles or curved (fig. 107). When the two horns bend down from the handle-base towards the point they are called à antennes. Others are turned up towards the hilt, counter-curved or inversed-that is, faced in opposite directions-or fantastically deformed (fig. 110).

b

FIG. 106.

THE ITALIAN FOIL.

b

Opposed to the guard proper is the bow or counter-guard (la contregarde, l'elsa, la contraguardia, der Bügel). It is of two chief kinds. In the first the quillons are recurved towards the pommel: the second is a bar or system of bars connecting the pommel with the quillons (fig. 108). The former defends the fingers,

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the latter serves to protect, especially from the cut, the back of the hand and the outer wrist. This modification, unknown to the ancients of Europe, became a favourite in the sixteenth century, and it is still found in most of our actual hilts. Another product of the early modern age is the pas d'âne. At the end of the

a stalk.

A congener of our 'quill,' from the Lat. caulis, Littré is not satisfactory: "Quiilon (ki-llon, 11 mouillées), s.m. Partie de la monture du sabre ou de l'épée, située du côté opposé aux branches, et dont l'extrémité est arrondie. Dérivé de quille' (cone) par assimilation de forme' (in fact, incrementative of) quille. Etym. Génev. quille; de l'anc. haut-allem. Kegil; allem. Kegel, objet allongé

en forme conique, quille.' Burn translates quillon 'cross-bar of the hilt of an infantry or light-cavalry Sword.'

2 This must not be written, as by some English authors, pas d'ane.' 'Pas d'âne, instrument avec lequel on maintient ouverte la bouche du cheval pour l'examiner.' Littré has: Pas d'âne, nom donné, dans les épées du xvième siècle, à des pièces

fourteenth century it was composed of two circular or oval-shaped bars, disposed on both sides of, and partly over, the fort of the blade. In the sixteenth century it was generally adopted, and became a complicated and highly-decorated adjunct to the handle. The pas d'âne is now almost obsolete: a relic remains in our armyclaymore.1

We may divide the shapes of blade into two typical forms with their minor varieties:

I. The curved blade (sabre, shable, broadsword, backsword, cutlass, hanger, scymitar,2 Düsack, Yataghan, Flissa, &c.) is

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II. The straight blade (Espadon, Flammberg, Stoccado, Braquemart, rapier, claymore, skeyne, tuck, small-sword, &c.): the varieties are:

a. The cut-and-thrust, one- or two-handed.

b. The broad and unpointed (headman's instrument).

c. The narrow, used only for the point.

It is hardly advisable to make a third type of the half-curved blade, adapted equally for tac et taille (cutting and thrusting), which we find in ancient Assyria, in India, and in Japan. It evidently connects both shapes.

The following diagram shows the three forms: 3

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I have given precedence to the curved blade because cutting is more familiar to man than thrusting. Human nature strikes 'rounders' until severe training teaches it to hit out straight from the shoulder. Again, the sabre-form would naturally be assumed by the sharpened club during the wooden age of imperfect edges; and the penetrating power would be weak and almost nil when the point was merely a fire-hardened stick.

de la garde qui sont en forme d'anneau, et qui vont des quillons à la lame. "Le Seigneur le prit et mit un pied sur la lame . . . alors Collinet s'écria: Venez voir, messieurs, le grand miracle que l'on fait à mon épée; je l'ai apportée ici avec une simple poignée et sans garde défensive, et voilà maintenant que l'on y met le plus beau pas d'âne du monde."' Francion, vi. p. 237: Pas d'âne, nom vulgaire du tussilage, à cause de la feuille.'

The Scottish basket-hilt, however, requires improvement, as it does not allow free play to hand or

wrist.

2 The word is originally the Persian Shamshir

(); but as the Greeks have no sh sound, it

made its way into Europe curiously disguised. Jean Chartier (temp. Charles VII.) says, 'Sauveterres ou cimeterres qui sont manière d'espée à la Turque.' Sauveterre became in Italian salvaterra; and in England scymitar was further degraded to semitarge. I have no objection to scimitar, but scymitar is the older form.

3 See note at the end of this chapter.

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