[Illustration: FIG. 233.—HINDÚ WARRIORS From memorial stones of Bijanagar, of which the Kensington Museum possesses photographs. The date of these monuments corresponds with our Middle Ages.] [Illustration: FIG. 234.—_a._ JAVANESE BLADE, SHOWING INDIAN DERIVATION. _b._ HINDÚ SABRE. From a bas-relief at Bijanagar.] The sage Vaishampáyana, a pandit or pedant lecturing on the Art of War, warns us that the ‘Efficiency of the weapon is subject to great changes. In different ages and places the quality of an arm is not the same, for the material and mode of construction greatly vary. Moreover, much depends upon the strength and ability of the person using such weapons, in preserving, increasing, or diminishing their efficiency.’ It may also be remarked that many of his weapons appear to be the results of a brain quickened by opium or hashísh. The sage Shukra, or Preceptor of the Dæmons, also discourses learnedly, in his ‘Shukraniti,’ on armies and weapons, including firearms. The only practical part of chap. v. (Oppert, pp. 82–144) is his description of the lucky and unlucky marks on horses. The Arabs have a similar system, and a horse with inauspicious signs sells, however well bred, for a small sum. And there is wisdom in verse 242 (p. 124):— A non-fighting King and a ne’er-faring Priest (Brahman) Earth swallows as Snake the hole-dwelling beast. As regards the Sword, Shukra says (Lib. iv. sect. vii. p. 109, verse 154):— Ishadvaktrashcaikadháro vistáre chaturangulah Kshurapránto nábhisamo drahamushtissucandraruk Khadgah prasáshchaturhastadandabudhnah ksuránanah. The Sword is a little curved and one-bladed; it is four-fingers broad, and sharp-pointed as a razor; it extends up to the navel, has a strong hilt, and is brilliant as the beautiful moon. The Khadga (two-handed Sword) is four cubits (or six feet) long,[708] broad at the hilt, and at the end-point sharp like a razor. [Illustration: FIG. 235.—BATTLE-SCENE FROM A CAVE IN CUTTACK, FIRST CENTURY A.D.] From neither of these works do we learn anything about an interesting subject—the elephant-Sword. It is mentioned by the Italian traveller Ludovico di Varthema (A.D. 1503–1508), who makes it two fathoms long and attached to the trunk. Athanasius Nikitin calls it a scythe. Knox in his ‘Ceylon’ also speaks of a sharp iron with a socket of three edges ‘placed on the teeth’ (tusks?). It was probably derived from the West. Antigonus, the great elephantarch; Seleucus, and Pyrrhus armed their beasts with ‘sharp points of steel in the tusks’—veritable Swords. In Da Gama’s day each animal wore ten blades, five to the tusk.[709]