Collectors of Indian and Burmese weapons

Jens Nordlunde · 29th May 2006, 04:42 PM

A few days ago I got a book from Canada. I had forgotten all about it, as it is five or six weeks ago I ordered it, but now it came.

Temple, Richard Carnac (ed.): The Itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna, 1510. Reprint 1970, Da Capo Press.

Di Vathema travelled in north and east Africa, Arabia, Persia, Syria, the west and east coast of India, Siam, Sumatra, Java and some of these islands. The travel to India and the islands he did with a Persian friend who was a merchant. The book consists of about 200 hundred pages, and about half is comments. The author tells about how the people lived, how they dressed, what they grew in the fields, mining gems and so on, not in great details, but I find it interesting to read. Only in a very few places he tells about weapons.

On page 47 he writes about Sind – ‘some of them carry a stick with a ring of iron at the base. Others carry certain iron dishes which cut all round like razors, and they throw these with a sling when they wish to injure any person; and, therefore, when these people arrive at any city in India, everyone tries to please them; for should they even kill the first nobleman of the land, they would not suffer any punishment be course they say that they are saints.’

Page 75 about Burma. ‘Their arms consists of small swords and some sort of shields, some of which are made of tortoise-shell, and some like those of Calicut; and they have a great quantity of bows, and lances of cane, and some also of wood. When they go to war they wear a dress stuffed with cotton…….. There is also here another kind of bird, one of prey, much larger than an eagle, of the beak of which, that is, of the upper part, they make sword-hilts, which beak is yellow and red, a thing very beautiful to behold.’

In most places he describes the dresses they wear when going to war as being quilted, but in one place he writes about mail shirts, and especially that an elephant was dressed in mail for protection of the trunk.

29th May 2006, 04:42 PM	#1
Jens Nordlunde Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Europe Posts: 2,718	Collectors of Indian and Burmese weapons A few days ago I got a book from Canada. I had forgotten all about it, as it is five or six weeks ago I ordered it, but now it came. Temple, Richard Carnac (ed.): The Itinerary of Ludovico di Varthema of Bologna, 1510. Reprint 1970, Da Capo Press. Di Vathema travelled in north and east Africa, Arabia, Persia, Syria, the west and east coast of India, Siam, Sumatra, Java and some of these islands. The travel to India and the islands he did with a Persian friend who was a merchant. The book consists of about 200 hundred pages, and about half is comments. The author tells about how the people lived, how they dressed, what they grew in the fields, mining gems and so on, not in great details, but I find it interesting to read. Only in a very few places he tells about weapons. On page 47 he writes about Sind – ‘some of them carry a stick with a ring of iron at the base. Others carry certain iron dishes which cut all round like razors, and they throw these with a sling when they wish to injure any person; and, therefore, when these people arrive at any city in India, everyone tries to please them; for should they even kill the first nobleman of the land, they would not suffer any punishment be course they say that they are saints.’ Page 75 about Burma. ‘Their arms consists of small swords and some sort of shields, some of which are made of tortoise-shell, and some like those of Calicut; and they have a great quantity of bows, and lances of cane, and some also of wood. When they go to war they wear a dress stuffed with cotton…….. There is also here another kind of bird, one of prey, much larger than an eagle, of the beak of which, that is, of the upper part, they make sword-hilts, which beak is yellow and red, a thing very beautiful to behold.’ In most places he describes the dresses they wear when going to war as being quilted, but in one place he writes about mail shirts, and especially that an elephant was dressed in mail for protection of the trunk.