Arms

weapons. We may suppose the first weapon to have been a fragment of stone thrown from the hand, or a branch wrested from a tree and used as a club. Later the stone was flung by means of a sling, and this missile was displaced by the lead or the steel bullet projected by an explosive, as powder. The modifications of the club are too numerous to trace. The mace, the sword, and the battle-ax may be regarded as weapons for blows given with the edge. The long leaf-shaped flint knife of primitive man had a keen edge and an artistic shape. Its descendants are the bronze and steel dagger, the poniard, and the bowie knife. The javelin, spear, and lance form still another class of weapons for blows given with the point. Preceding firearms were the bow and arrow, the crossbow, and the arbalest. In contrast with artillery, all sorts of guns, the musket, arquebus, rifle, shotgun, carbine, pistol, derringer, and Colt's revolver, are called firearms. See Fire Arms; Artillery; Archery; Gunpowder; Sword; Sling; Armor; Arquebus