consisted of a scanty tight-fitting tunic,with breeches that were very large at the top, and tight below the knee, where their boots were drawn over them. This was their complete costume, and it was worn without any kind of under-garment whatever. For protection against the inclemency of the weather they were provided with tiger (or panther) skins, which they wore suspended about their necks (prototypes of more recent hussar pelisses with their fur lining); and these they adjusted in such a manner as would best oppose them to that quarter from which the wind might be blowing upon them. They were but inferior shots; but with the curved sabre they exhibited a dexterity that was truly wonderful. In common with the cavaliers of the East, they were masters of that scientific art, which empowered them to strike off the head of an enemy at a single blow."-[Quicherat, in the Magasin pittoresque, vol. 28, p. 388.]

In our own times the sabre takes rank before the sword, since it is the weapon of all cavalry corps, and also it is much used by infantry.

The scimetar, or very light sabre, with a blade curved like a crescent, still continues to be the favourite weapon that is used with such extraordinary dexterity by the active and expert swordsmen of the East.

CHAPTER X.

ARMS AND ARMOUR IN ENGLAND.

In the "Notes" appended to the text of this volume I have endeavoured in some degree to compensate for the general absence from the text itself of such notices of English Arms and Armour, as would naturally be expected by English readers in a work which had appeared in their own language. But the necessary requirements of " notes " prevented their conveying anything resembling a definite sketch, complete as far as it professed to go, of any one department or division of the general subject; and consequently, in this present chapter I have proposed to add to the contents of M. Lacombe's treatise, a concise sketch of the leading characteristic features of Arms and Armour in England. I desire it to be distinctly understood that this sketch does not profess to be more than a sketch-a concise and a slight sketch; and also that it will be found not to have attempted to accomplish more than what, in the first instance, it professed to undertake. Accordingly, I have desired here to direct attention only to what are strictly typical examples; and all minute descriptions of details, together with notices of the various modifications of the more decided types which were simultaneously in existence, I have considered to be excluded from my present purpose.

The authorities upon which, in addition to actual pieces of armour and original weapons, I have relied, and to which I have referred the reader, for the most part are monumental effigies, and the armed figures that are represented on early seals. These are at least comparatively easy of access; and