THE CHRISTIAN'S SHIELD AND BUCKLER.

FAITH.

Faith builds a bridge across the gulf of death,
To break the shock blind Nature cannot shun,
And lands thought smoothly on the farther shore.
Death's terror is the mountain Faith removes,
That mountain barrier between man and peace.
'Tis Faith disarms destruction, and absolves
From every clamorous charge the guiltless tomb.

YOUNG.

Historical Notice.

THE SHIELD is unquestionably the most ancient and most general piece of defensive armour in the world. When it was first invented we cannot say; but it is mentioned in the Bible long before Helmets or other defensive armour. It is the only defensive armour mentioned in the books of Moses. The Egyptians, as usual, claim the honour of the invention; and before it was discovered, men probably endeavoured to break the force of blows by doing what Diodorus tells us the first kings of Egypt did, investing their persons with the skins of lions and bulls. Among the means for this

purpose, the superior convenience and efficacy of such a contrivance as a Shield, could not fail soon to occur to the mind: and accordingly, there is hardly any nation in which the Shield, in some form or other, is not employed. Savages, who have not the least idea of such defences as the helmet, or cuirass, are yet seldom found without the Shield.

There are three, if not four sorts of Shields mentioned in Scripture; or, at least, there are four names by which they are distinguished. The largest seems to be that called tzinnah, which was twice the size of the ordinary Shield, as we learn from 1 Kings, x. 16, 17, and 2 Chron. ix. 15, 16, where 600 shekels of beaten gold were employed in the construction of the one, and 300 shekels in the other. Formidable as this weight of metal for the tzinnah is, it probably does not give an approximating idea of its full weight, and still less of its size, as Shields were almost never wholly of metal, but were of wood, or skin, covered with metal. We may suppose the tzinnah to answer to the larger kind of Shields which were used in ancient nations. Concerning these and other ancient arms there are very complete indications in Homer's Iliad. Among his heroes, as well as in other times and nations, these larger Shields were chiefly used by persons fighting on foot. Their length was nearly equal to that of a man, as we gather from several passages in that old poet; thus he says of Hector :

"So saying, the hero went, and as he strode,
The bull-skin border of his bossy shield
Smote on his heels, and on his neck behind."

The same fact is implied in the intimations which we find of the bodies of the slain being carried on a Shield; as in the famous injunction of the Spartan mother to her son, "Either bring back this Buckler, or be brought back upon it." This refers also to the sentiment of honour connected with the preservation of the Shield. It was natural enough for a man, when escaping, to desire to disencumber himself of such a burden and encumbrance as the larger kinds of Shields were and therefore the sentiment of honour was brought in, and made it disgraceful to lose the Shield under any circumstances. The civilized Greeks and Romans, and the barbarous Germans, equally shared this sentiment. Among the latter, those who left their Shields in the enemy's power, were excluded from civil and religious privileges, and often sought a release from ignominy in a voluntary death. The Hebrews participated in this feeling and David, in his fine elegiac Ode on the death of Saul and Jonathan, does not omit to mention this among the subjects of national regret―

:

"Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew,

Neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings:
For there the Shield of the mighty is vilely cast away." u

The length of these Shields seems to show that they were either oblong or oval; and that they were hollow, which implies external convexity, we gather from their being described as inclosing or encompassing the body. Homer has such expressions, and so has David, "With favor wilt thou compass him as with a Shield," v which

seems to prove the analogy in this respect. Tyrtæus, in one of his hymns still extant, is very precise on this point: "The warrior stands in the contest firm upon both feet the hollow of the spacious Shield covering, below; his sides and thighs, and his breast and shoulders, above." The manner in which these large heavy Shields were used, may be collected by a comparison of the different passages in Homer. They were supported by a leathern thong which crossed the breast. So Agamemnon advises the warriors to "brace well their Shields," and foretells that before the approaching battle is over,

Every Buckler's thong,

Shall sweat on the toiled bosom.

And so in the battle itself, Pallas finds Diomede beside his chariot,

Cooling the wound inflicted by the shaft

Of Pandarus; for it had long endured

The chafe and sultry pressure of the belt,
That bore his ample Shield."

His wound was on the right shoulder; whence we may infer that the belt hung from that shoulder, and crossed the breast to the left side, where it was attached to the Shield, which could, of course, be moved at pleasure, behind or in front. Lighter Shields had sometimes a thong fastened to the handle, by which they were hung round the neck, and carried in any convenient position when not in use, upon the arm, at the back, or even at the hip. In action, and indeed often out of action, Shields of different sizes were carried and swayed by means of a handle fixed to its inner surface; or if