Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
Subjects:
Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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,which was worn on the fingers and used to eviscerate an enemy.Both these weapons are said to have been employed by theMahratta King Sivaji on a historical occasion. Fig 39 s is the national dagger of the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush,an isolated mountain tribe apparently retaining in its art remoteGreek influences which may d;ite from Hellenistic times. Of other weapons, sjjcars were in general use; they nearlyalways had leaf-shaped iron heads with sockets. 48 ASIA Battle-axes were widely distributed in Persia and India. Thewedge-shaped axe (fig. iO m) is the commonest form. Fig. 40 n isa type of battle-axe or crow-bill common in Cutch : it usually hasa thin stiletto screwed into the end of the shaft. Of maces (fig. 40/) the type with six flanges or wings (Shnskhnr)occurs both in Persia and India. Other maces have globularheads with spikes after the manner of the morning Star.Akin to these are the hand-flails, with morning-stars at the end ofchains. The cow-liead mace is a Persian weapon.
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& g i Fig. 40.—Various oriental arms, to which reference is made in the text. The bow is the short composite liow (flg. 40 c) made of layersof wood, horn, and sinew glued together and covered by an orna-mental casing of birchbark or lacquer, usually coloured andgilded. This type of weapon was used over the whole of Westernand nomadic Asia from Turkey to China; it was probablyinvented in a legion where wood suitable for making the longplain bow was not available, perhaps in North Central Asia. Itwas introduced into China by the Tartars, and spread into Indiafrom the north. The earlier stages of manufacture may berepresented by the bows of the Eskimo and of certain tribesof Californian Indians (pp. 258, 271 \ In all cases the object has ORIENTAL ARMS AND ARMOUR 49 been to obtain the maximum amount of elasticity and resistancein a bow of small dimensions. The composite bow is of greatantiquity, and has been found in tombs in ancient Egypt, whitherit had probably been intioduced fro

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