Nature's Teachings

The Spear and the Dagger

It is tolerably evident that the invention of the spear and dagger must have been nearly, if not quite, contemporaneous with that of the club. I place these weapons together because there is great difficulty in assigning to either of them the precedence, the spear being but a more or less elongated dagger, and the dagger a shortened spear.

As a good example of this fact, I have in my collection a number of spears and daggers belonging to the Fan tribe of Western Africa. In every case the weapons correspond so closely with each other, that if the daggers were attached to shafts they would exactly resemble the spears, and if the spears were cut off within a few inches of the head, they would be taken for daggers.

I may here mention that as this part of the subject merely involves the employment of a pointed or thrusting weapon, instead of the club or sword, both of which are used for striking, the question of poison, barbs, and sheaths will be treated on another page.

The primary origin of the Spear is probably the thorn, as a savage who had been wounded by a thorn would easily pass to the conclusion that a thorn of larger size would enable him to kill an enemy in war, or an animal in hunting. Anything of sufficient dimensions, which either possessed a natural point or could be sharpened into a point, would be available for the purpose of the hunter or warrior.

Accordingly we find that such objects as the beak of the heron or stork, the sharp hind-claw of the kangaroo, the bone of the sting-ray, the beak of the sword-fish, and many similar objects, are employed for the heads of spears, or used simply as daggers.

As to artificial spears, nothing is easier than to scrape a stick to a point, and then, if needful, to harden it in the fire. This is, indeed, one of the commonest forms of primitive spears, and I have in my collection many examples of such weapons. Another simple form of this weapon is that which is made by cutting a stick or similar object diagonally.

Hollow rods—such, for example, as the bamboo—are the best for this purpose. I have now before me a cast of a most interesting weapon discovered by Colonel Lane Fox. It is the head of a spear, and is formed from part of the leg-bone of a sheep. At one end there is a simple round hole, which acted as a socket for the reception of the shaft, and the other end is cut away diagonally, so as to leave a tolerably sharp point.

As to the bamboo, it has a great advantage in the thinness of its walls, and the coating of flinty substance with which it is surrounded, and which gives its edges a knife-like sharpness. Indeed, so very sharp is the silex, that splinters of bamboo are still used as knives, and with them a skilful operator can cut up a large hog as expeditiously as one of our pork-butchers could do with the best knife that Sheffield produces.

I possess several of these weapons, and formidable arms of offence they are. If the reader can imagine to himself a toothpick, a foot or more in length, made from bamboo instead of quill, and having its edges nearly as sharp as a razor, he can realise the force of even so simple a weapon. In the case of the bamboo, too, celerity of manufacture has its value, for any one can make a couple of spears in less than as many minutes. All he has to do is to cut down a joint of bamboo transversely, and then with a diagonal blow of his knife at the other end to form the point.

The force of such a weapon may be inferred from a remarkable combat that took place some sixty years ago, when the roads were not so safe as they are at present.

A gentleman, who happened to be a consummate master of the sword, was going along the highway at night, and was attacked by two footpads, he having no weapon but a bamboo cane.

One of them he temporarily disabled by a severe kick, and then turned to the other, whom he found to be pretty well as good a swordsman as himself, and to possess a good stick instead of a slight cane. The footpad soon discovered the discrepancy of weapons, and with a sharp blow smashed the cane to pieces, leaving only about eighteen inches in his antagonist’s hand.

Almost instinctively Baron – sprang under the man’s guard, and dashed the broken cane in his face. The footpad staggered with a groan, put his hands to his face, and ran away, followed by his companion, who did not desire another encounter with such an antagonist. When the victor reached his destination, he found that the footpad’s face must have been torn to pieces, for the clefts of the split bamboo were full of scraps of skin, flesh, and whisker hair.

It is worthy of notice that the combination of the club and the dagger is common to savage and civilised life, as may be seen by reference to the illustration in page 53, where the wooden club of savage warfare and the metal club and maces of civilisation are alike armed with a piercing as well as a bruising apparatus. Mostly the dagger is on the head of the mace or battle-axe, but, in some cases, the end of the handle acts as the dagger, and the head as the axe or mace.

A very good example of this formation is found in the wooden battle-axe, or “Patoo,” of New Zealand, a weapon which has been long superseded by modern fire-arms. A specimen in my possession is rather more than five feet in length. The head is just like that of an ordinary axe, while the handle tapers gradually to the end, where it terminates in a sharp spike. In actual combat the point was used much more than the axe.

CHAPTER II.

POISON, ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE.—PRINCIPLE OF THE BARB

Poison as applied to Weapons.—Its limited Use.—Animal and Vegetable Poisons.—Animal Poisons.—The Malayan Dagger, or Kris, and two Modes of poisoning it.—The Bosjesmans and their Arrows.—Snake Poison and its Preparation.—The Pseudo-barb.—The Poison-grub, or N’gwa.—Simple Mode of Preparation, and its terrible Effects.—Vegetable Poisons.—The Upas of Malacca.—The Wourali Poison of Tropical America.—Mode of preparing the various Arrows.—The Fan Tribe of West Africa, and their poisoned Arrows.—Subcutaneous Injection.—Examples in Nature.—The Poison-fang of the Serpent.—Sting of the Bee.—Tail of the Scorpion.—Fang of the Spider.—Sting of the Nettle.—Exotic Nettles and their Effects.—The Barb and its Developments.—The “Bunday” of Java.—Reversed Barbs of Western Africa.—Tongans and their Spears.—The Harpoon and Lernentoma, or Sprat-sucker.—The Main Gauche, or Brise-épée.

ANOTHER advance, if it may so be called, lay in increasing the deadly effect of the weapons by arming them with poison.

Without the poison, it was necessary to inflict wounds which in themselves were mortal; but with it a comparatively slight wound would suffice for death, providing only that the poison mixes with the blood. It is worthy of notice that cutting weapons, such as swords and axes, seldom, if ever, have been envenomed, the poison being reserved for piercing weapons, such as the dagger, the spear, and the arrow.

Animal Poisons

Perhaps the most diabolical invention of this kind was the Venetian stiletto, made of glass. It came to a very sharp point, and was hollow, the tube containing a liquid poison. When the dagger was used, it was driven into the body of the victim, and then snapped off in the wound, so that the poison was able to have its full effect.

Such poisons are of different kinds, and invariably animal or vegetable in their origin. Taking the animal poisons first, we come to the curious mode of poisoning the Malayan dagger, or “Kris.” The blade of the weapon is not smooth, but is forged from very fibrous steel, and then laid in strong acid until it is covered with multitudinous grooves, some of them being often so deep that the acid has eaten its way completely through the blade.

Among some tribes the kris is poisoned by being thrust into a putrefying human body, and allowed to remain there until the grooves are filled with the decaying matter. It is also said that if the kris be similarly plunged into the thick stem that grows just at the base of the pine-apple, the result is nearly the same.

As a rule, however, the Arrow is generally the weapon which is poisoned, and a few examples will be mentioned of each kind of poisoning.

The two most formidable animal poisons are those which are made by the Bosjesmans of Southern Africa. Their bows are but toys, and their arrows only slender reeds. But they arm these apparently insignificant weapons with poison so potent, that even the brave and bellicose Kafir warrior does not like to fight a Bosjesman, though he be protected by his enormous shield.

There are two kinds of animal poison used by the Bosjesmans. The first is made from the secretion of the poison-glands of the cobra, puff-adder, and cerastes. Knowing the sluggish nature of snakes in general, the Bosjesman kills them in a very simple manner. He steals cautiously towards the serpent, boldly sets his foot upon its neck, and cuts off its head. The body makes a dainty feast for him, and the head is soon opened, and the poison-glands removed.

By itself, the poison would not adhere to the point of the weapon, and so it is mixed with the gummy juice of certain euphorbias, until it attains a pitch-like consistency. It is then laid thickly upon the bone point of the arrow, and a little strip of quill is stuck into it like a barb. The object of the quill is, that if a man, or even an animal, be wounded, and the arrow torn away, the quill remains in the wound, retaining sufficient poison to insure death. I have a quiverful of such arrows in my collection.

That arrows so armed should be very terrible weapons is easily to be imagined, but there is another kind of poison which is even more to be dreaded. This is procured from the innocent-looking, but most venomous, Poison-grub. It is called N’gwa by the Bosjesmans, and is the larval state of a small beetle. When the arrow is to be poisoned, the grub is broken in half, and the juices squeezed upon the arrow in small spots.

Both Livingstone and Baines give full and graphic accounts of the horrible effect produced by this dread poison, which, as soon as it mixes with the blood, drives the victim into raging madness. A lion wounded by one of these arrows has been known nearly to tear himself to pieces in his agonies. M. Baines was good enough to present me with the N’gwa grub in its different stages, together with an arrow which has been poisoned with its juices.

The Bosjesmans are themselves so afraid of the weapon, that they always carry the arrows with the points reversed, the poisoned end being thrust into the hollow reed which forms the shaft of the arrow. Not until the arrow is to be discharged does its owner place the tip with its point uncovered.

Vegetable Poisons

We now come to the Vegetable Poisons, the two best known of which are the Upas poison of Borneo, and the Wourali of South America. It is rather remarkable that in both these cases the arrows are very small, and are blown through a hollow tube, after the manner of the well-known “Puff-and-dart” toy of the present day.

The Upas poison is simply the juice of the tree, and it does not retain its strength for more than a few hours after it has been placed on the arrow-points. A supply of the same liquid is therefore kept in an air-tight vessel made of bamboo, the opening being closed by a large lump of wax kneaded over it at the mouth. One of these little flasks, taken from a specimen in my collection, is seen on the extreme right of the illustration.

The Wourali poison owes all its power to its vegetable element, though certain animal substances are generally mixed with it. The principal ingredient is the juice of one of the strychnine vines, which is extracted by boiling, and then carefully inspissated until it is about the consistency of treacle. This poison differs from the Upas in the fact that it retains its potency after very many years, if only kept dry. I have a number of arrows poisoned with the Wourali. They were given to me by the late Mr. Waterton, who procured them in 1812, and even in the present year (1875) they are as deadly as when they were first made.

A bundle of these tiny arrows, surmounted by the little wheel which is used to guard the hand from being pricked, is seen next to the Bornean poison-flask.

Beside these little arrows, which are only about ten inches in length, very much larger arrows are used both for war and hunting, and are propelled by the bow, and not with the breath. Many of these arrows are nearly six feet in length. In all, the head is movable fitting quite loosely into a socket, so that when an animal is struck and springs forward, the shaft is shaken off, to be picked up by the hunter, and fitted with another point, while the poisoned head remains in the wound.

Another kind of poison, also of a vegetable origin, is used by the Fan tribe. The arrows are mere little slips of bamboo, and are propelled by a slight crossbow. But the poison is so potent, that even these tiny weapons produce a fatal effect.

Nearly in the centre of the illustration is seen a rather curiously formed syringe, with an extremely long and slender tip. This is a recently invented instrument, used for the purpose of subcutaneous injection—i.e. of injecting any liquid under the skin. It is mostly employed for injecting opium and other drugs of similar qualities, for the purpose of obtaining relief from local pain. The slender spike-like point is hollow, and ends in a sharp tip, formed like the head of a lance. Just below the head there is a little hole, communicating with the interior of the tube.

The mode of operating is simple enough. The syringe is filled with the drug, and the point introduced under the skin at any given spot. Pressure on the piston then forces out the liquid, and causes it to mix with the blood.

Natural Animal Poisons

Now, both in the animal and vegetable worlds may be found several examples of an apparatus which acts in exactly the same manner.

The first is the poison-fang of the Serpent, a specimen of which is given on the left hand of the illustration. This fang answers in every respect to the syringe above mentioned. The long and slender fang is hollow, and answers to the pipe of the syringe. It communicates at the base with a reservoir of liquid poison, which answers to the body of the syringe, and there is a little hole, or rather slit, just above the point, which allows the poison to escape.

When the serpent makes its stroke, the base of the fang is driven against the reservoir, so that the liquid is urged through the hollow tube, and forced into the wound. Even in large serpents these fangs are very small. I have now before me some fangs of the cobra, puff-adder, rattlesnake, and viper, and it is astonishing how small and slender are these most deadly weapons. The figure in the illustration is much magnified, in order to show the aperture at the base, where communication is made with the interior of the fang. As the exit hole is on the upper curve of the fang, it is not visible in the figure.

Next to the serpent’s fang is a representation of the Bee-sting, the poisonous reservoir being seen at the base, and having attached to it the tiny thread-like gland by which the poison is secreted.

In the centre is seen the tail of a Scorpion, with its hooked sting. The last joint is formed just like the serpent’s fang, being hollow, having a sharp point with a slit near the end, and a poison reservoir in the rounded base. When the scorpion attacks an enemy, it strikes violently with the tail, and the force of the blow drives out the poison just as is done with the serpent’s fang.

At the bottom of the illustration is shown the poison-fang of a Spider, which, as the reader may see, is formed just on the principle of the scorpion-sting.

Natural Vegetable Poisons

So much for animal poisons. We will now pass to the vegetable world.