DEFENSIVE ARMS.—The most ancient defensive piece was the shield, buckler, roundel, or target, composed of a great variety of materials, very different in form and size, and therefore in all nations bearing a variety of names. The Hebrews used the word ruv tsinnah, for a great shield ; defence, protection (Gen. xv. i ; Ps. xlvii. 9; Prov. xxx. 5), which is commonly found in connection with spear, and was the shelter of heavily-armed infantry ; po magen, a buckler, or smaller shield, which, from a similar juxtaposition with sword, bow, and arrows, appears to have been the de fence of the other-armed infantry and of chiefs ; and sohairah, panne:, a roundel, which may have been appropriated to archers and slingers ; and there was the I75t., shelet, a kind of shield, [respecting the peculiarity of which there is much thicknesses and bordered with metal : the lighter kinds were made of wicker-work or osier, similarly, but less solidly covered ; or of double ox-hide cut into a round form. There were others of a single hide, extremely thick from having been boiled ; their surface presented an appearance of many folds, like round waves up and down, which might yield, but could rarely be penetrated.
We may infer that at first the Hebrews borrowed the forms in use in Egypt, and that their common shields were a kind of parallelogram, broadest and arched at the top and cut square beneath, bordered with metal, the surface being covered with raw hide with the hair on. The lighter shields may have been soaked in oil and dried in the shade tc. make them hard ; no doubt, hippopotamus, rhino. ceros, and elephant skin shields were brought from Ethiopia and purchased in the Phoenician markets ; but small round hand-bucklers of whale-skin, still used by Arabian swordsmen, came from the Erythrxan sea. During the Assyrian and Persian supremacy the Hebrews may have used the square, oblong, and round shields of these nations, and may have subsequently copied those of Greece and Rome. The princes of Israel had shields of precious metals : all were managed by a wooden or leathern handle, and often slung by a thong over the neck. With the larger kinds a testudo could be formed by pressing the ranks close together ; and while the outside men kept their shields before and on the flanks, those within raised theirs above the head, and thus produced a kind of surface, sometimes as close and fitted together as a pantile roof, and capable of resisting the pressure even of a body of men marching upon it.
The tsinnah was most likely what in the feudal ages would have been called a 15avise, for such occurs on the Egyptian monuments. This weapon was about five feet high, with a pointed arch above, and square below, resembling the feudal knight's shield, only that the point was reversed. This kind of large-sized shield, however, was best fitted for men without any other armour, when combating in open countries, or carrying on sieges ; for it may be remarked in general, that the military buckler of antiquity was large in proportion as other defensive armour was wanting. Shields
were hung upon the battlements of walls, and, as still occurs, chiefly above gates of cities by the watch and ward. In time of peace they were covered to preserve them from the sun, and in war uncovered ; this sign was poetically used to denote coming hostilities, as in Is. xxii. 6, etc. In Europe, where the Crusaders could imitate the Saracens, but not introduce their climate, shields were carved in stone upon towers and gates, as at York, etc. The Eastern origin of this practice seems to be attested by the word Zuine, which, in German, still denotes a battlement, something pointed, a summit, and conveys the idea of a pavise with the point uppermost, a shape such as Arabian battlements often assume.
The Helmet was next in consideration, and in the earliest ages was made of osier, or rushes, in the form of a beehive, or of a skull-cap. The skins of the heads of animals—of lions, bears, wild boars, bulls, and horses—were likewise adopted, and were adorned with rows of teeth, manes, and bristles. Wood, linen cloth in many folds, and a kind of felt, were also in early use, and helmets of these materials may be observed worn by the nations of Asia at war with the conqueror kings of Egypt, even before the departure of Israel. At that time also these kings had helmets of metal, of rounded or pointed forms, adorned with a figure of the serpent Kneph ; and an allied nation, perhaps the Carian, reported to have first worn a military crest, bears on the skull-cap of their brazen helmets a pair of horns with a globe in the middle—the solar arkite symbol. The nations of farther Asia, however, used the woollen or braided caps, still retained, and now called kaouk and fez, around which the turban is usually wound. These were almost invariably supplied with long lappets to cover the ears and the back of the head, and princes usually wore a radiated crown on the summit. This was the form of the Syrian, and probably of the Assyrian helmets, excepting that the last mentioned were of brass, though they still retained the low cylindrical shape. The VM: koba, some helmet of this kind, was worn by the trained infantry, who were spearmen among the Hebrews ; but archers and slingers had round skull-caps of skins, felts, or quilted stuffs, such as are still in use among the Arabs. The form of Greek and Roman helmets, both of leather and of brass, is well known; they were most likely adopted also by the Hebrews and Egyptians during their sub jection to those nations, but require no further notice here.