_The Morning Star._--This was a mace with a spiked head, in great use upon the Continent, especially among the German nations; both cavalry and infantry were armed with it, the long-shafted weapon being appropriated by the foot soldier. Doubtless one of its advantages was the facility with which it could be made, a skilled armourer not being necessary. The short weapons of the cavalry were generally made of iron. [Illustration: FIG. 434.--1. Holy water sprinkler. 2. Military flail. 3. Holy water sprinkler.] _The Military Flail, or Holy Water Sprinkler._--The Military Flail is akin to the Morning Star and the Morgenstern. It consists of a shaft to which is affixed a staple having a chain depending, and to the end of this a ball of iron usually covered with spikes. At times a flail of iron or wood, garnished with spikes, is substituted for the chain and ball (Fig. 434). _The Mace._--The mace has probably a more remote antiquity than any other weapon. Commencing in the Stone Age, it has come down through the Bronze Period to that of Iron, and was in general use by Egyptians, Assyrians, and throughout the East. The Normans and Saxons both used it at Hastings, and, as a weapon, it did not disappear until the sixteenth century. It has undergone many changes of form, being at times of cog-wheel shape, oval, globular, dentated, &c., but the general form was that of radiating flanges surrounding a central head. The knob was at times of lead, and some maces are furnished with a spike, as a prolongation of the shaft (Fig. 435). As early as the fourteenth century, the mace was in use as a sign of authority among the law officers, and in the sixteenth century was the characteristic weapon of the sergeant-at-arms. The royal arms were stamped upon the shaft at the termination of the grip: this end became in consequence the important part of the weapon; the ornaments and guards augmented and developed, while the end furnished with the knob shrank into insignificance. Finally the mace was reversed; the arms now appear upon the upper end of the shaft in all corporation and other maces. The mace was the weapon of militant churchmen, who sought thus to avoid the denunciation against those “who smite with the sword”; they argued that although the Scripture forbade the shedding of blood there was no restriction respecting the dashing out of brains. [Illustration: FIG. 435.--1. Morning star. 2. Mace. 3. Maces (or goedendags, or morgensterns).]