Light troops were armed with these guns, and took the name of _carabins_; from this the weapon was next called _carabine_--a designation which since then has received quite another meaning. [Illustration: Fig. 70.--Battle-axe and Pistol of the 16th Century. (Museum of Artillery, Paris.)] Then followed the _pistoles_ and the _pistolets_, thus named, it is said, because they were invented at Pistoia; but, with other etymologists, we can also believe that they owed the name to the fact of their bore being of equal diameter with that of the _pistole_, a coin of the time. The earliest pistols were made with wheels (_à rouet_), and the barrel did not measure more than a foot in length. Subsequently they varied in shape and in use; some were made which fired several shots in succession, and in other cases they attempted to combine a pistol with the dagger or the battle-axe. (Fig. 70, &c.) This is a notably fine specimen. We must not forget to note, in what may be called _les armes de luxe_, the joint application of the match-holder and the wheel to highly-finished arms, this combination being available. The screw-plate _à miquelet_, improved by French experiments, led to the mechanism called flint-lock (_fusil_). There were also then pistols and arquebuses with flint-locks, as formerly there had been pistols and arquebuses with wheels. Subsequently the explanatory became the absolute term, and the entire weapon was known as _fusil_. [Illustration: Fig. 71.--Banner of the Sword-cutlers of Angers.] CARRIAGES AND SADDLERY. Horsemanship among the Ancients.--The Riding-horse and the Carriage-horse.--Chariots armed with Scythes.--Vehicles of the Romans, the Gauls, and the Franks: the Carruca, the Petoritum, the Cisium, the Plaustrum, the Basterna, the Carpentum.--Different kinds of Saddle-horses in the Days of Chivalry.--The Spur a distinctive Sign of Nobility: its Origin.--The Saddle, its Origin and its Modifications.--The Tilter.--Carriages.--The Mules of Magistrates.--Corporations of Saddlers and Harness-makers, Lorimers, Coachmakers, Chapuiseurs, Blazonniers, and Saddle-coverers.