THE SPEAR AS A WEAPON OF WAY.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7176, 30 May 1885, Page 4

THE SPEAR AS A WEAPON OF WAY.

H^P^JThe, spear and its history is coeval matt, ever since the days of our §§||ft_Ve'-jdwelKng ancestors and their sticks. Its varieties are S^ff-aimoßt; innumerable, from the MaceIpl^dpnian sarissa to the Roman pilum ; i^l^lrbm ,-.tho Zulu assagai to the heavy pflkSOttdaneee weapon. For cavalry the the lance is only an aristoi^>crtttio;form of the same weapon — is, as |^|^:i^so'; often termed, the "queen of |||^w'eapb_B." The sabre has to give place gSjos& when the question of supremacy is It was those terrible twelvolances that in the Francowar scattered dragoon, hussar, d'Afrique before them in ; every fight. And before that the war of 1813, the Cossacks owed no little of their prestige fifteen feet long lances. PerS^Kapsthe most sensible step our authoritook in military organisation up the Indian Irregular ||p|(3aValry -as originally constituted. Each P^e^uadron of the Indian cavalry is armed, rank with lances, the rear ready to rush in close after P^thSir Comrades, and use their more 'sabres with effect upon the wkos6Uenyanks of the enemy. The sword few words, developed as it Hpy^- t cp'me.'donn to our times, from the W^M!&f :Pointlesß blade of the primitive p^sS^ageto.the short cut-and-thrust twoweapon affected by the legionancient Rome, and the rapier of times. The Soudanese sword is simply the twosword of our s?ood old iimes — 8 pf Flodd.en-T-adapted to suit handling. Play of wrist is among Eastern swordsmen — cut with the whole arm "shoulder ia invariably em- : sharp. blow with a drawing