Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/106

 88 A History of Art in Sardinia and Jud.ea. covered at Teti, consists of a long open guard and uprights, formed by a double twist or plait, connected by narrower bands of similar form. 1 The blade, now broken, was furnished with a tongue fitting the hilt cavity, on a mortise and tenon principle as our common knives, riveted by one single nail to the bone or wood hilt. The small animal figures in relief ornament it on one side, whilst a frog about to leap, and a yawning lizard are displayed around the guard, intended to recall, it may be, the long dreary watches, the lying in wait of perpetual occur- rence in the guerilla warfare practised by these mountaineers. We shall not mention in detail weapons of no special characteristics, and which have nothing to distinguish them from a host of others of the same class, such as triangular, circular, or ribbed points of lances, 2 single or double-edged FlG.94.— HandleofBronze r. Dagger. FromTeti. Boil., axes, the latter being furnished with a socket 1884. Plate V., fig. 12. . ° 3 to receive the handle. As tor bows, they were of wood, and have consequently disappeared ; but their existence is attested by numberless arrowheads, 4 whilst quivers are known by the statuettes on which they were minutely figured, showing that the left arm wielding the bow was protected by a gauntlet against the rebound of the string (Fig. 96). If from defensive we pass on to offensive arms, we shall find that helmets, figured and described in another place, are the most noteworthy (Figs. 54 and 67), and which here and there were replaced by a leather or even woollen cap (Figs. 61 and 65). The dress of the Sardi soldier consisted of two coats or tunics, worn one over the other ; the upper, often a sheep's skin, states Strabo, 5 in the guise of a cuirass, was no bad proof against the missiles of detached from Statuette. Boll., 1884, Plate IV., %• 3- 1 Pais, Boll., pp. 133, 134, 1884. 2 Ibid. p. 14t. 3 Ibid. pp. 140-142. 4 Various points of the island have yielded pieces closely resembling those men- tioned in the text, one only being from Teti. They are all preserved in local collections. 6 Strabo, V. ii. p. 7.