Hand-guns of the later middle ages and the “renaissance” may be divided into plain weapons for the ordinary soldiers, and decorated guns for leaders and parade, besides hunting purposes. Brescia was a great centre for their manufacture. Numbers of these guns were fired without touching the shoulder, the recoil being provided for by placing the thumb firmly against the nose. The musket (muchite, so named from the sparrow-hawk), which was longer and more powerful than the harquebus, though similar in construction and mechanism, appears in the third quarter of the sixteenth century, and St. Remy refers to it as being in use about the end of the seventeenth century. It was first fired from the breast, then from a long-forked rest, furnished with a spike at the end for sticking into the ground; but this fell into desuetude in the seventeenth century. It was found very difficult to keep the powder dry in the bandoliers,[56] which were cases of wood or tin, each containing a charge of powder, and strung round the neck; and powder flasks began to be used about 1540, the bullet-bag being carried on the soldier’s right hip. Powder flasks appear very early in the sixteenth century, with the well-known arrangement for the measured charge; early examples are given in the arsenal books of Maximilian I. They were first very small, but gradually increased in size as the century wore on, mostly circular in form, but later they are often three-cornered, and frequently made of horn, wholly or in part. Cartridges superseded their use about the middle of the seventeenth century, and the bayonet is first mentioned about the same time. Arrows or quarrels were often used as projectiles for the musket, but this happened mostly at sea. The harquebusier of the seventeenth century carried a weapon two and a half feet long. The carbine or caraben is a gun with a wide bore, first used in Queen Elizabeth’s reign. The decoration of many of the hand-guns of the sixteenth century was of a most artistic character, the barrels being often enriched with chasings, fine metal incrustations, or damascened, while the stocks were curiously and delicately carved and inlaid. It is generally assumed that the material usually used for inlaying is ivory, but it is really bleached stagshorn, and inlaying with tortoise-shell was also not uncommon. A great amount of decorative skill was also expended on powder flasks. There were several diminutives and combinations of the leading hand-guns referred to. Examples of early hand-guns are given in Fig. 51. * * * * *