As the sixteenth century advanced, sword blades became narrower, lighter, and more adapted for thrusting, while guards developed rings and curved knuckle-guards to protect the out-thrust hand (Fig. 29 [4], [3]). The new method of fighting had definite advantages over the old slashing system, which required the sword to be raised high, exposing the body, before a blow could be struck, and soon the thrusting sword, or _rapier_, was used everywhere. The system of rings which formed the guard grew more complicated and finally coalesced into a solid metal cup, which completely shielded the hand within it (Fig. 29 [6], [8]). Sometimes a dagger (Fig. 29 [5], [7]) was held in the left hand to parry the opponent’s sword blade, but eventually this was abandoned and fencers learned to parry with the rear portion of their own blades, before making a second thrust (_riposte_) with the point. Action grew faster and faster, and swords lighter and more manageable, until by the seventeenth century the customary weapon was the _court sword_, with a short, single-handed hilt, a small flat guard often magnificently decorated in chiselled steel, and a relatively short, light blade having a needle-like point, and often without any sharp cutting edge at all (Fig. 30). [Illustration: _Fig. 31. A rondel dagger with a silver handle._] [Illustration: _Fig. 32. An outfit for a hunter: dagger, knife, awl, and larding needle, all fitting into one scabbard._] In addition to the sword, the dagger was often used as a supplementary weapon which could still be carried for self-protection when courtesy or convenience made the wearing of a sword impracticable. Daggers were made in a number of special shapes, varying with changes of fashion. In the fifteenth century two popular forms were the _rondel dagger_ (Fig. 31) which had guard and pommel in the form of disks, and the _kidney dagger_ (then known by a less-printable name and worn, with the naive exhibitionism of pre-Victorian days, directly below the belt buckle) which had a straight, simple hilt and a short guard of ball-like form. Italians of the sixteenth century liked the _anelace_, with its drooping guard and short, wide, sharply tapering blade. Mention has already been made of the left-hand daggers of the seventeenth century. The _stiletto_, without a guard other than a short cross-bar, was also popular at this time. Hunters and landesknechts often carried a complete outfit of small tools in the scabbard with their dagger; such a _trousse_ (Fig. 32) was very convenient when preparing freshly-killed venison for the cook or when eating around a camp fire. LANCES AND POLE ARMS