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Primitive Striking Weapons of Oriental Nations. 1; 2, 3, Clubs; 4, 5, Crooked Billets, or Throwing-bats ; 6, Mare; 7, Battle-axe; 8, llsird-wooil Sword; 0, Sharks-teeth Sword; 10, Flint Sword; 11, Sawfish Sword ; 12, 13, Egyp- tian Battle-axe.
san, and was anciently known among us by the name of crooked billet. The Australians are exceedingly skillful in the use of this implement, called by them the bommerano. These instruments, supplied with a sharp edge, would naturally constitute a battle-axe and a kind of sword; and such in the rudest ages we find them, made with flints set into a groove, or with sharks' teeth firmly secured to the staff with twisted Binews. On the earliest monuments of Egypt, for these ruder instruments is already seen substituted a j i ice of metal, with a steel or bronze blade fastened into a globe, thus forming a falchion-axe ; and also a lunate- blade, riveted in three places to the handle, forming a tiii" battle-axe (Wilkinson, i, 325, 32G) ; and there were, besides, true bills or axes, in form like our own. See Maul; Axe.
2. Next came the dirk or poniard, which, in the He- brew word 3"in, chereb' (usually translated "sword"), may possibly retain some allusion to the original in- strument made of the antelope's horn, merely sharpen- ed, which is still used in every part of the East where the material can be procured. From existing figures, the dirk appears to have been early made of metal in Egypt, and worn stuck in a girdle (Wilkinson, i, 319) ; but, from several texts (1 Sam. xvii, 39 ; 2 Sam. xx, 8 ; 1 Kings xx, 11), it is evident that the real sword was slung in a belt, and that "girding" and "loosing the sword" were synonymous terms for commencing and ending a war. The blades were, it seems, always short (one is mentioned of a cubit's length) ; and the dirk-sword, at least, was always double-edged. The sheath was ornamented and polished. In Egypt there were larger and heavier swords, more nearly like mod- ern tulwars, and of the form of an English round-point- ed table-knife. But, while metal was scarce, there were also swords which might be called quarter-pikes, being composed of a very short wooden handle, sur- mounted by a spear-head. Hence the Latin telum and ferrum continued in later ages to be used for rjladius. In Nubia swords of heavy wood are still in use. See Sword; Knife.
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Oriental Catting or Piercing Weapons. 1, 2, Swords; 3, 4, Tu'.war Swords; 5, Qnarter-pike; C, Dagger.
Oriental Projectile Weapons. 1, 2, Spear-heads; 3, 4, Darts; 5, Oryx-horn Spear-head.
3. The "spear," n*3~i, ro'mach, was another offen- sive weapon common to all the nations of antiquity, and varied much in size, weight, and length. Prob- ably the shepherd Hebrews, like nations similarly situ- ated in northern Africa, anciently made use of the horn of an oryx, or a leucoryx, above three feet long, straightened in water, and sheathed upon a thornwood staff. "When sharpened, this instrument would pene- trate the hide of a bull, and, according to Strabo, even of an elephant : it was light, very difficult to break, resisted the blow of a battle-axe, and the animals which furnished ft were abundant in Arabia and in the desert east of Palestine. At a later period the head was of brass, and afterward of iron. Very ponderous weapons of this kind were often used in Egypt by the heavy infantry; and, from various circumstances, it may be inferred that among the Hebrews and their im- mediate neighbors, commanders in particular were dis- tinguished by heavy spears. Among these were gen- erally ranked the most valiant in fight and the largest in stature; such as Goliath, "whose spear was like a weaver's beam" (1 Sam. xvii, 7), and whose spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron, which by some is asserted to be equal to twenty-five pounds' weight. The spear had a point of metal at the butt- end to fix it in the ground, perhaps with the same massy globe above it which is still in use, intended to counterbalance the point. It was with this ferrel that Aimer slew Asahel (2 Sam. ii, 22, 23). The form oi thi> head and length of the shaft differed at different times both in Egypt and Syria, and were influenced by the fashions set by various conquering nations. See Spear.
The javelin, named FPSH, chanith' (usually render-
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ed "spear"), and "jiT1?, hldon (variously rendered "spear," "shield," etc.), maj>- have had distinct forms : from the context, where the former first occurs, it ap- pears to have been a species of dart carried by light troops (1 Sam. xiii, 22; Psa. iv); while the latter, which was heavier, was most likely a kind of pilum. In most nations of antiquity, the infantry, not bearing a spear, carried two darts, those lightly armed using both for long casts, and the heavy-armed only one for that purpose ; the second, more ponderous than the other, being reserved for throwing when close to the enemy, or for handling in the manner of a spear. This explanation may throw light on the fact of the chanith being named in connection with the ftSS, tsimiah', or larger buckler (1 Chron. xii, 34), and may reconcile what is said of the chidon (Job xxxix, 23 ; xli, 29, and Josh, viii, 10). While on the subject of the javelin, it may be remarked that, by the act of casting one at David (1 Sam. xix, 9, 10), Saul virtually absolved him from his allegiance ; for by the customs of ancient Asia, preserved in the usages of the Teutonic and other na- tions, the Saehsen recht, the custom of the East Franks, etc., to throw a dart at a freedman, who escaped from it by flight, was the demonstrative token of manumis- sion given by his lord or master ; he was thereby sent out of hand, manumissus, well expressed in the old English phrase "scot-free." But for this act of Saul, David might have been viewed as a rebel. See Dart ; Javelin: Lance.