THE PATHAN SWORD.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6072, 8 January 1898, Page 7

THE PATHAN SWORD.

[Br Frederick Boyle.] (Poll Mall Gazette.) In writing of the Pathan warrior the other day, I mentioned his native sword. The term is not quite exact. I have seen chiefs and nobles wearing a sword, but not of the tulwar variety. At all points it resembled the weapon of Cossack officers, slightly curved, guardless, with silver or ivory hilt inlaid or engraved with black figures. On this account we noted it with interest, for coincidences much less suspicious were taken as proof of "Russian intrigues" at that time. I had often examined the swords of my good friends the Cossacks with admiration, and they are almost identical ; but the reason is probably that the Circassians on the northwest and the Pathans on the south-east alike borrowed the weapon from Persia long ago. The influence of that country on its neighbours in all that concerns art and literature and civilization in general is at least as great as that of France under the Koi Soleil. But the Pathan warrior carries a more effecthe instrument. He is terribly practical, and unnumbered generations of tightingmen have perfected a tool beyond rivalry forthepurposesin view. It is not so elegant as the sword, but Mr Ruskin teaches us that there is beauty of its sort in every instrument which fulfils the object for which it was designed iv the most efficient possible manner. Unquestionably this credit is due to the Pathan knife. With a very large experience, I assert that no people have invented a weapon so well fitted for killing quickly and surely in battle. FOR MURDER, SECRET AND OPEN ALIKE, and for carving tho victim afterwards.. The wisdom and experience of onr butchers have led them to adapt a knife exactly similar in conception for their business — that is, for stabbing and cutting up ; but the Pathan has to adapt the same shape for striking. When I look up I see one hanging opposite. It was annexed and given to me after the famous Ghazi rush into a pal-tent just outside a gate of Candahar, when five English soldiers were killed, I think, and many wounded • plenty of your readers can state the facts exactly. I was on the return march from Khelat-i-Ghilzai at the time. Many and various are the arms that adorn my wall, but when I ask a visitor to name one among them which looks as if it had committed murder never yet did he fail to choose this. Here is the descrip- j tion: Total length, 2ft sin; length of blade, 2ft, -breadth of blade at hilt, 2in; thickness at back, ; it tapers to the finest point, but so gradually that at half an mcli from the tip the back is very nearly a quarter of an inch thick. Hilt and all it is one piece of metal, but slices of horn, ribbed, give a firm grip. Standing out from the pommel, but solid* as all the rest, is an adjunct like a spur, which may be regarded as an ornament in time of peace, but very effective for smashing a man's jaw, with a back-handed stroke, in a mtlee, AS A WEAPON OF OFFENCE this is perfect. Contrast it with the feeble and unbusiness-like machete of Spanish America, which is used for the same purposes by an unwarlike race who had apparently the same general idea. Studying this long and heavy butcher's knife, one understands the awful cuts, like those of a battle-axe, which we beheld on many a poor wretch killed and " crimped " by those* -.savages. The stout point cannot possibly bend, and rarely, indeed, does it break. Unencumbered with a guard'of any. sort, the balance is admirable. A Pathan used to rely upon his target for defence. That picturesque equipment is going out of fashion, but the tribesmen will be illadvised if they adapt their national arm to the changed state of things in war with the Sircar. Theyfightbyrnsh.es. Protection for the sword hand would not avail much against a bayonet thrust, and the perfect balance of the knife would be

under my own eyes— at Lundi Kotal, Ii think, but again many of your readers can correct me. At least, General Meade was in command. His tent stood close to the mouth of a very steep little incline. By^ the roadßide under this, perhaps two or three hundred yards away, but ■within the , limits of the camp, was a spring whicli had been cleared out and provided' with a •. rough basin. Camp followers and miscellaneous people drew water there. A* number of them stood and sat around as I passed by. On the other side the road — ' which was cut along the face of the mountain— a slope clothed with brushwood ;: fell very steeply to invisible depths below. I reported myself to the General. We had not spoken twenty words when a clamour rose outside ; A HAPLESS BttEESTIK. appeared at the mouth of the incline, stumbled on, and fell almost at the tent . door. He had along cut from the breastbone to the stomach, intended for his head, no doubt; his arms and legs were slashed from behind, right and left, , The poor fellow was waiting atthe spring when two Pathans sitting there leapt to 1 their feet and mauled him thus. It is' ' noteworthy that when he ran they might have cut him* down ; as a greater insult, probably, they "crimped" him. Soldiers were constantly coming and going on that road ; perhaps there were none in Bight afc the moment. Several officers had passed with me very few minutes before. There . were sentries along the hill above and an army at call. Bnt those demons were not to be denied. Perhaps : they came with the resolve to kill a Sahib, ' or perhaps a sudden thirst for blood over-, came them. After the crime they dashed ' down tbe slope and vanished in a moment among the rocks and brushwood. I think they were not caught. Tho Bheestie died.