Viewing page 310 of 469

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[underline]] Chapter XIII. [[/underline]] 280.

[[underline]] History of Cavalry from the Earliest Times [[/underline]] , Lond., 1877, page 59.
From the beginning of their historical period until well after the middle of the 1st millennium B.C., indeed, the ancient Chinese, like the Homeric Greeks and many another Bronze Age people (though war-chariots lasted on until after the commencement of the Iron Age in some regions), depended in actual combat mainly on their chariotry, aided to a certain extent by levies of peasant-serfs serving on foot.
For bringing my attention the Chinese references in this and the last footnote but one (note 254), I am greatly indebted to Dr. A. W. Hummel, of the Library of Congress.
---------------------------------
The bronze points that we found were all much of a size, and seemed rather small---too small to have been heads of lances or spears, yet too large for arrowpoints.  They were well designed and skilfully cast, and averaged about 12 [[underline]] cm. [[/underline]] in total length, of which the blades proper occupied around 7.5 [[underline]] cm. [[/underline]]  All were socketed for mounting on their shafts.  The (inside) diameter of the sockets, at the mouth, was around 1.5 [[underline]] cm. [[/underline]] , and they of course tapered inwardly.  Their walls varied in thickness from 2 to 3 [[underline]] [[mm.?]] [[/underline]] , and were perforated---presumably for fastening onto their shafts---by nearly but never directly opposite pairs of tiny holes, none so far as we saw over 4 [[underline]] mm. [[/underline]] across and usually less.  The cutting-edges of the blades were always beveled sharply on both sides, and often showed signs, especially near their tips, of grinding or whetting; it seemed, indeed, as though every warrior must have carried about with him a hone or whetstone of some sort, as a regular item of his equipment.

[[underline]] Two Types of Points. [[/underline]]
We noted among these bronze points two quite distinct types, one with two, the other with three, cutting edges (pl. 39, fig. 2, examples at sides); though whether this dichotomy of form connoted any ethnic difference in their users, we of course had no means even of guessing.  
One type, the double-edged one, was essentially a very slender cone of bronze, hollow for the greater part of its length; since the interior cavity extended forward inside the blade to within 3.5 [[underline]] cm. [[/underline]] and sometimes