Morning journal and courier., 1889-09-02

aEms or precision, when nelo Dy COOL ana disciplined soldiers, over the weapons of past days, the ponderous Characterization sword which the Soudanese carry, and the lance which, till gunpowder was invented, was the most formidable weapon in war.
 Once recognized as @ formidable weapon, two varieties came into existence, the heavy stabbing ''assegai," as the zulus call it, and the lighter one with keener head for throw- ing Among Ts savage g1s nations these are % sti both. All over Africa it is the chief equip | ment of the warrior, varying from the needle | pointed javelin of some of the equatorial tribes to the broad paddle blade heads of the ponderous spears of others.
 These races, however, are all foot soldiers; and it Is only when we turn to nations of horsemen that we meet with 'tthe lance" gerating it into the preposterous length of the Macedonian t'sarissa," we have elonga- ted it beyond the proportions of most of the spears of antiquity, and proved it, in our own Lancers' hands, and in those of the fa- nous Bengal cavalry, terrible weapon in- deed.
 In Homer we read how Achilles thrust Hector through the neck with his spear, "a pole heavy with bronxe," and the early Per sians using the same weapon added 8 sharp spike to the butt end, 80 that it could be used either way. The Greek lance was light missile, scarcely nine feet long, and was the chief arm of their cavalry, and from them was borrowed by the Roman horse man. But the Roman spear par excellence was the short, heavy plum, which, with the broadsword, only two feet long in the blade, won so many victories for the Legions and established the wisdom of the saying that "the people who shortened their weapons heightened their boundaries" The Gauls are described as fighting with ponderous olub-hke spear, while in nlyria the soldiers carried fine slight javelin, which they called their stspits." Ancient Germany and Spain also had their characteristic lances, the one massive like lance, the other a mere reed for lightness. Thus alternating between the heavy and light, we find the same arm everywhere in use by infantry, while the cavalry carried almost invariably the longer "lance," which still holds it's own even in these days of firearms. In India, 8 country of unrivalled spearmen, the mount ed lancers have always been conspicuous in than the Irregular Horse" of Hindestan. Arabia is another country. famous for the skill of it's spearmen, and travellers never weary of telling of the dexterous feats, the terrific appearance, of the mounted Bedou- fms.
 Historically the spear is very important, for, time after time, in the annals of Asia and Europe, it has turned the soale of bat- | tie; how it flashes through all the courtly re-
 cords of chivalry and glitters in the story of | half a hundred nations; how romance de- | lights In it, the knightliest of weapons and | the most beautiful; and how sober history itself takes fire from these sharp steel points ! of the Asiatio hosts twinkling all along the ! vexed boundaries of imperial Rome, kindles l at the glinting onrush of Macedonian and ! Scythian, and brightens into the very poetry ! of Snraoan and Gruaqdar nn0aS | and the sunlight strikes the keen tips of their pennoned lances all down the enbattled line. From one exquisite and fatal form to anoth- CT it has passed from country to country, als
 ways elegant, always deadly, and to be seer
 to-day In the perfection of its peculiar
 grace when the irregular cavalry of India
 take the field with their auttering lsnoes.
 Terror hovers above them as they pass into
 action, and history seems to roll back fol
 vailed spearmen, Sikh and Jat, .Pathan and
 Mahratta, as they sight their foe and lowe1
 their lance heads to the level of death. Il
 was at the points of these same spears, shod
 with steel from the valleys of the Nerbudd.
 and the Taptee, that Sivaji founded th,
 hated Mohammedan supremacy, and stretch
 ing the authority of the Peishwalik iron Essa to sea. It was at the points of thes | same spears that in our greatest campaign in India we often carried off victory, an
 the history of our Bengal cavalry, tellinI ) how again and again they held the scale o
 the days fortunes, and again and agail
 turned it in our favor, is as brilliant a re
 cord as ever soldiers earned.
 In Egypt, as we have learned at such fire
 quent cost, the Soudanese thoroughly under ! stand the use of the ancient national arm
 and do not hesitate to oppose the spear t
 the byyonet. It is desperate weapon in
 deed in the hauds of such brave men a l Wad-el-Njumi commanded, but the pitiles fire of our rifles gives the gallant fellows bu
 little chance of coming to the close auarter
 in which alone their spears can be deadly
 The Zulus, when they rushed in on the camI
 of the Twenty-fourth at Isandlawana, funj
 first volley of the longer assegais, and thel
 closed with the stabbing one, and, gettinl | into the middle of our men before the,
 could form, slew as they pleased. So, toe
 when the troops of Hicks Pasha and Genera
 Baker let the Arahs get among them, tn
 massacre was rapid and complete. At
 Teb they tried hard to do the same, but tn
 Highlanders would not have 1t, and the lin
 of British steel kept the host outside tn square till the guns and rifles. pouring ii their shells and bullets, compelled them t retire. At Abu KIea, again. the tactics wer similar. The enemy, "by cleverly execu l ted movement, also disappeared from view, and then suddenly reappearing close to ou
 troops, flung themselves headlong agains
 our square, hoping to force their way int
 it, and in the melee that would thus ensu to find the opportunity for effective use c
 their keen-headed spears. The sight mus have been most imposing one, and oalculs ted to shake the steadiest nerves. as the tw masses, five thousand men in each, suddenl burst out from their covert. and with thei wild cries of "For the Faith!" came ( racing speed upon our guns, brandishin { above their heads, as they rushed to death the spears which their leader once tol , them were to drive the British bayonet 1 back to the Red Sea.
 It was gallant effort. But the day (
 the spear as weapon for hand-to-han combat is passed. and not even all tt , courage of the Khslija's men can avail restore 1t to it's old pre-eminenee in wa } For light cavalry 1t still remains withol ] challenge the most effective arm, but . Hector holds rife Achilles has no chan' of reaching him with his "pole heavy vii bronze"