Cutlass and corselet of steel, and his trusty sword Curved at the point and inscribed with its mystical While underneath, in a corner, were fowling-piece, Short of stature he was, but strongly built and athletic, Broad in the shoulders, deep-chested, with muscles and sinews of iron; Brown as a nut was his face, but his russet beard was already Flaked with patches of snow, as hedges sometimes in November. One of 8. The corselet was a light breast-plate of armor. Standish's grandsons is said to have been in possession of his coatof-mail. His sword is in the cabinet of the Massachusetts Historical Society. As "the identical sword-blade used by Miles Standish" is also in possession of the Pilgrim Society of Plym outh, the antiquary may take his choice between them, or credit Standish with a change of weapons. Damascus blades are swords or cimeters presenting upon their surface a variegated appearance of watering, as white, silvery, or black veins in fine lines and fillets. Such engraved blades were common in the East, and the most famous came from Damascus; the exact secret of the workmanship has never been fully discovered in the West. 10. A fowling-piece is a light gun for shooting birds; a matchlock was a musket, the lock of which held a match or piece of twisted rope prepared to retain fire. As late as 1687 matchlocks were used instead of flint-locks, which had then come into general use. In Bradford and Winslow's Journal (Young's Chronicles of the Pilgrims, p. 125), we are told of a party setting outwith every man his nusket, sword, and corseiet, under the conduct of Captain Miles Standish " That these muskete were matchlocks, appears from another passage in the same journal (p. 142): "Then we lighted all our matches and pre. pared ourselves, concluding that we were near their dwell |