John George Wood - Nature's Teachings

The left-hand central figure is a Fijian fish-spear of four points, and the last figure on the right hand represents a large four-pronged spear of Borneo. Both these weapons are in my collection.

Another example of a weapon where a large and powerful barb is needful is the Harpoon. As the harpoon is used in capturing the whale, the largest and most powerful of living mammalia, it is evident that a barb which will hold such a prey must be rather peculiarly made. The head and part of the shaft of the harpoon are shown in the right-hand figure of the accompanying illustration.

The left-hand figure represents a curious parasitic crustacean, popularly called the Sprat-sucker, because it is usually found on sprats. It affixes itself mostly to the eye, the deeply barbed head being introduced between the eye and the socket. In some seasons this remarkable parasite is quite plentiful, while in others scarcely a specimen can be found. Its total length is slightly under an inch, and its scientific name is Lernentoma Spratti .

The following graphic account of some prototypic weapons belonging to a marine worm is given by Mr. Rymer Jones, and is well worthy of perusal, not only for the vividness of the description, but for its exact accuracy:—

“Here is a Polynoe, a curious genus, very common under stones at low water on our rocky shores.

“It is remarkable on several accounts. All down the back we discover a set of oval or kidney-shaped plates, which are called the back-plates ( dorsal elytra ); these are flat, and are planted upon the back by little footstalks, set on near the margin of the under surface: they are arranged in two rows, overlapping each other at the edge. These kidney-shaped shields, which can be detached with slight violence, are studded over with little transparent oval bodies, set on short footstalks, which are, perhaps, delicate organs of touch. The intermediate antennæ, the tentacles, and the cirrhi or filaments of the feet, are similarly fringed with these little appendages, which resemble the glands of certain plants, and have a most singular appearance.

“If we remove the shields, we discover, on each side of the body, a row of wart-like feet, from each of which project two bundles of spines of exquisite structure. The bundles, expanding on all sides, resemble so many sheaves of wheat, or you may more appropriately fancy you behold the armoury of some belligerent sea-fairy, with stacks of arms enough to accoutre a numerous host.

“But, if you look closely at the weapons themselves, they rather resemble those which we are accustomed to wonder at in missionary museums,—the arms of some ingenious but barbarous people from the South Sea Islands,—than such as are used in civilised warfare. Here are long lances, made like scythe-blades, set on a staff, with a hook on the tip, as if to capture the fleeing foe, and bring him within reach of the blade. Among them are others of similar shape, but with the edge cut into delicate slanting notches, which run along the sides of the blade like those on the edge of our reaping-hooks.

“These are chiefly the weapons of the lower bundle; those of the upper are still more imposing. The outermost are short curved clubs, armed with a row of shark’s teeth to make them more fatal; these surround a cluster of spears, the long heads of which are furnished with a double row of the same appendages, and lengthened scimitars, the curved edges of which are cut into teeth like a saw.

“Though a stranger might think I had drawn copiously on my fancy for this description, I am sure, with your eye upon what is on the stage of the microscope at this moment, you will acknowledge that the resemblances are not at all forced or unnatural. To add to the effect, imagine that all these weapons are forged out of the clearest glass instead of steel; that the larger bundles may contain about fifty, and the smaller half as many each; that there are four bundles upon every segment, and that the body is composed of twenty-five such segments, and you will have a tolerable idea of the garniture and armature of this little worm, which grubs about in the mud at low-water mark.”

Somewhere between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a sort of anomalous weapon was in use, namely, a dagger, with a number of very deep and bold barbs. It was not, however, employed for offence, but for defence, and was used in the “rapier and dagger” mode of fighting, when the dagger, which was held in the left hand, was employed to parry the thrusts of the rapier, which was held in the right. From the mode of holding it, the weapon was called “Main Gauche.”

Sometimes the blade was quite plain, and, indeed, an ordinary dagger answered the purpose. But in most cases the Main Gauche was made for this special purpose, and was furnished either with strong diverging projections, or with a series of deep notches, so that the sword of the enemy might be caught in them and broken. In consequence of this use these notched or guarded weapons were also called by the name of Brise-épée , or Sword-breaker.

The resemblance between this weapon and the blade of a wasp’s sting can be seen at a glance. There is another form of the Brise-épée which is so strangely like the cutting apparatus of one of the saw-flies, that an outline sketch of the one would answer very well for the other.

Propulsive Power.—The Pea-shooter and its Powers.—An Attack repulsed.—Clay Bullets.—Puff and Dart.—The Sumpitan of Borneo, and its Arrows.—The Zarabatana or Pucunha of South America, and its Arrows.—The Air-gun.—Modern Firearms.—The Chœtodon, or Archer-fish.—The Pneumatic Railway.—The Throwing-stick and its Powers.—Australians, Esquimaux, and New Caledonians.—Principle of the Sheath.—Waganda Spears.—Sheathed Piercing Apparatus of the Gnat, Flea, and Bombylius.—Indian Tulwar and Cat’s Claw.—The Surgeon’s Lancet, and Piercing Apparatus of the Gad-fly and Mosquito.

WE will now take some of the analogies between Projectile Weapons of Art and Nature, selecting those in which the propulsive power is air or gases within a tube. Whether the weapon be a blow-gun, an air-gun, or a firearm of any description, the principle is the same. We will take them in succession, choosing first those of the simplest and most primitive character.

Taking ourselves as examples, and looking upon the toys of children as precursors of more important inventions, we find that the simplest and most primitive of projectiles is the Pea-shooter, so familiar to all boys.

Insignificant as is the little tin tube, and small as are the missiles which are propelled through it, the blow which can be struck by a pea properly shot is no trifle. At college I have seen a night attack upon an undergraduate’s rooms successfully repelled by a pea-shooter made for the nonce of a glass tube, the owner of the rooms having a taste for chemicals, and possessing a fair stock of the usual apparatus. Though the assaulted rooms were on the top set, and the assailants began their storming approaches below, the peas were too much for the stones, taking stinging effect on the hands and faces, and preventing any good aim being taken at the windows. Only two panes of glass were broken through a siege that lasted for several hours.

There is another toy which is a development of the pea-shooter, and carries a small clay bullet instead of a pea. When the tube is quite straight and the balls fit well, the force of this missile is very great, as it can be used for killing small birds. Indeed, such an instrument is largely employed by the native hunters in procuring humming-birds for the European market. These weapons are generally lined with metal in this country, but a simple bamboo tube is sufficient for the native hunters.