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August, 1873.]
MARÅTHÅ WEAPONS.
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from Europe by the Portuguese, or else made in the blade is usually about a foot long and three imitation of such imported swords. Generally inches wide, and fastened by two straps of iron it has three channelled grooves. Grant Duff and to a bamboo shaft five feet long. Meadows Taylor have both mentioned that the I have seen the mace and war-axe only in the importation was considerable, and that Raja armouries of great men. The axe sometimes Sivaji's sword Bhavání was a Genoa blade.* has a pistol-barrel in the shaft.
Patta (H.): The long thin blade with A common weapon among Hindustanîs and gauntlet guard and grip at right angles to the Musalmans is a long steel rod with three or four blade; used by professional swordsmen.
small rings sliding on it. These, slipping forThe hilt (kabja) of the first three varieties is ward as the weapon descends, add force to the often surmounted by & spur; useful both for blow, which is far more severe than might be supguarding the arm, and for a grasp for the left posed from the slender appearance of the weapon. hand in a two-handed stroke. The blades most It is also a good guard against sword-cute. esteemed are those of Lahor, in the Panjab.
The bow (Kamå n, H.) is still used as a III. DAGGERS.
weapon of offence by the Khândesh Bhills, and Jambiya (H.) : Originally introduced by I have known men to be killed with it. It is of the Arabs. Short, crooked at an angle, double bamboo, with string of the same, and two or edged, with a central rib. Often silver-hilted three spare strings are carried on the bow itself, and worn three in a sheath.
half-strung and ready if the first should break. Katar (M.): Has a cross grip and guard of I do not think any other race in this Presidency two bars reaching halfway to the elbow; corre- uses the bow much ; and even among the Bhills sponds to the Pattâ among swords. Is a common archery is out of fashion. At the Dhulia athlecognizance among Rajput and Marathâ families, tic sports of 1872, no passable archer could be and is, like the Patta, originally a Hindû weapon. brought forward from the Bhill Corps or vil
Mada (M.): The stiletto of the Khandesh lages around. They have a peculiar arrow for Bhills and other wild tribes, also a favourite | 'shooting fish, with a long one-barbed head weapon with Hindu religious beggars. It con- which easily comes off the shaft, to which howsists of a pair of horns of the gazelle (chinkára) ever it is attached by a coil of twine. The shaft set parallel, but with the steel-tipped points in floats and is recovered by the Bhill, who thereopposite directions, and joined by two trans- apon hauls in his fish by the line. The arrows verse bars. Is sometimes used in the left hand used for other game are made of bamboo about of a swordsman for guarding.
28 inches long, with two feathers and a flat Vincha (M. the scorpion') is a dagger, two-edged head about three inches long, set into shaped something like one side of a pair of the shaft (not on it, as with us), and secured shears, and worn without a sheath, but con- with waxed thread. The well-known pelletcealed in the sleeve. I have one a foot long bow is used throughout Western India. I never and double-edged; but the commonest form is knew poisoned arrows to be used, but once knew not more than half that size, and is stiletto- a sword to be poisoned with milk-bush. bladed, i. e. has no edge.
The sling is, to the best of my knowledge, never Chûri (M.) is the commonest native knife, used as a weapon; but devoted both in the Dakhan with a knucklebone hilt, and slight curve in the and Khandesh to thescaring of birds from the fields. edge; introduced by the Muhammadans. The Perhaps the most popular of all native wonAfghân knife and Turkish ataghan are of the pons is the Lohangi or Longi Katî, or ironsame class.
bound bamboo; specially affected by Råmusis Wágnak (M.) is an Oriental version of the and village watchmen. I have one weighing six knuckle-duster, three or four steel claws on a pounds, which was the property of a Koli dakait frame, worn concealed between the fingers. This called Bagunya Naik, who used to carry this in and the vinchû were used by Raja Sivaji in the his left hand and a sheathless "patta" in his murder of the Bijapur general Afzal Khân. right when "on service;" "and then he wouldn't
There is a sort of brown-bill (Pharsi) used mind what four men said to him," as my informby village watchmen and Mawasis in Khandesh; ant pat it. Bagunya, however, disdained
• Grant Duff, Hist. of the Mahrattas, vol. I. p. 298.
