--'It has been pretty much the same as yours,' I answered. 'Putting aside the remote antiquity, I will briefly tell you how it has been since the commencement of the chivalric period. The sword was always our chief weapon of honour, that you know very well. Then bows and arrows were also regarded as honourable weapons, so much so, that the families which made military affairs their constant occupation were called "the houses of bows and arrows," The phrase "bow-handlers" came to signify "leaders." Thus when the famous Takeda Shingen, towards the end of the sixteenth century, spoke of Iyeyasu, his junior contemporary, as "the first bow-handler of the Tokai provinces," he meant by the phrase "first bow-handler" a general of great ability. The spear which was used by the leaders was also held in high esteem. Thus "distinction at the point of the spear" was a phrase commonly used to denote distinguished deeds of warriors. "The seven spears of Shizugatake" is a phrase constantly used by people at large. It refers to the gallant fighting of the seven famous captains of Hideyoshi at the battle of Shizugatake. They all used spears. The Naginata was a weapon with a long curved blade, with a handle a little shorter than that of a spear: it was considered a proper weapon for women and monks, and was not, therefore, looked upon as being so honourable as a spear for ordinary warriors to use. The decisive battles were necessarily hand-to-hand combats. There was even time-honoured heraldic etiquette, that when two combatants were about to fight they announced their names and positions, etc., to each other. I believe a somewhat similar custom existed in Europe also. Warriors of position considered it a disgrace to be killed or captured by "nameless common soldiers," as they were called. The hand-to-hand combat, being the chief feature of battle, it was natural that a person who had overcome an enemy of greater distinction or of higher rank was regarded as having done a correspondingly greater action; hence the custom of bringing back the enemies' heads by the combatants, and submitting them to the inspection of their leaders, came into existence, and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the modes of such inspections had become an elaborate part of the heraldic ceremonies. The measure of the boxes in which the heads were put, the manner in which to place them and how to take them out, what attitude to be assumed by the one who submitted the heads for inspection, and what composure the one who inspected should assume, and what glance he should give to the head--all these matters had fine and minute rules, though when taking place on the actual spot at a hasty hour, much of the formality was necessarily simplified.' --'How was it with the firearms?' asked one.