I saw the wisdom of his suggestion, and as my clothes were by now so
ragged as to but half conceal my nakedness, I had no regrets in laying
them aside. Stripped to the skin, I donned the red-deerskin tunic, the
leopard-tail, the golden fillet, armlets and leg-ornaments of a Galu,
with the belt, scabbard and knife, the shield, spear, bow and arrow and
the long rope which I learned now for the first time is the distinctive
weapon of the Galu warrior. It is a rawhide rope, not dissimilar to
those of the Western plains and cow-camps of my youth. The honda is a
golden oval and accurate weight for the throwing of the noose. This
heavy honda, Chal-az explained, is used as a weapon, being thrown with
great force and accuracy at an enemy and then coiled in for another
cast. In hunting and in battle, they use both the noose and the honda.
If several warriors surround a single foeman or quarry, they rope it
with the noose from several sides; but a single warrior against a lone
antagonist will attempt to brain his foe with the metal oval.
I could not have been more pleased with any weapon, short of a rifle,
which he could have found for me, since I have been adept with the rope
from early childhood; but I must confess that I was less favorably
inclined toward my apparel. In so far as the sensation was concerned,
I might as well have been entirely naked, so short and light was the
tunic. When I asked Chal-az for the Caspakian name for rope, he told
me ga, and for the first time I understood the derivation of the word
Galu, which means ropeman.
Entirely outfitted I would not have known myself, so strange was my
garb and my armament. Upon my back were slung my bow, arrows, shield,
and short spear; from the center of my girdle depended my knife; at my
right hip was my stone hatchet; and at my left hung the coils of my
long rope. By reaching my right hand over my left shoulder, I could
seize the spear or arrows; my left hand could find my bow over my right
shoulder, while a veritable contortionist-act was necessary to place my
shield in front of me and upon my left arm. The shield, long and oval,
is utilized more as back-armor than as a defense against frontal
attack, for the close-set armlets of gold upon the left forearm are
principally depended upon to ward off knife, spear, hatchet, or arrow
from in front; but against the greater carnivora and the attacks of
several human antagonists, the shield is utilized to its best advantage
and carried by loops upon the left arm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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