As to the bamboo, it has a great advantage in the thinness of its walls, and the coating of flinty substance with which it is surrounded, and which gives its edges a knife-like sharpness. Indeed, so very sharp is the silex, that splinters of bamboo are still used as knives, and with them a skilful operator can cut up a large hog as expeditiously as one of our pork-butchers could do with the best knife that Sheffield produces. I possess several of these weapons, and formidable arms of offence they are. If the reader can imagine to himself a toothpick, a foot or more in length, made from bamboo instead of quill, and having its edges nearly as sharp as a razor, he can realise the force of even so simple a weapon. In the case of the bamboo, too, celerity of manufacture has its value, for any one can make a couple of spears in less than as many minutes. All he has to do is to cut down a joint of bamboo transversely, and then with a diagonal blow of his knife at the other end to form the point. The force of such a weapon may be inferred from a remarkable combat that took place some sixty years ago, when the roads were not so safe as they are at present. A gentleman, who happened to be a consummate master of the sword, was going along the highway at night, and was attacked by two footpads, he having no weapon but a bamboo cane. One of them he temporarily disabled by a severe kick, and then turned to the other, whom he found to be pretty well as good a swordsman as himself, and to possess a good stick instead of a slight cane. The footpad soon discovered the discrepancy of weapons, and with a sharp blow smashed the cane to pieces, leaving only about eighteen inches in his antagonist’s hand. Almost instinctively Baron ---- sprang under the man’s guard, and dashed the broken cane in his face. The footpad staggered with a groan, put his hands to his face, and ran away, followed by his companion, who did not desire another encounter with such an antagonist. When the victor reached his destination, he found that the footpad’s face must have been torn to pieces, for the clefts of the split bamboo were full of scraps of skin, flesh, and whisker hair. It is worthy of notice that the combination of the club and the dagger is common to savage and civilised life, as may be seen by reference to the illustration in page 53, where the wooden club of savage warfare and the metal club and maces of civilisation are alike armed with a piercing as well as a bruising apparatus. Mostly the dagger is on the head of the mace or battle-axe, but, in some cases, the end of the handle acts as the dagger, and the head as the axe or mace.