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accuracy at an enemy and then coiled in for another cast. In hunting and in
battle, they use both the noose and the honda. If several warriors surround a
single foeman or quarry, they rope it with the noose from several sides; but a
single warrior against a lone antagonist will attempt to brain his foe with the
metal oval.
I could not have been more pleased with any weapon, short of a rifle, which he
could have found for me, since I have been adept with the rope from early
childhood; but I must confess that I was less favorably inclined toward my
apparel. In so far as the sensation was concerned, I might as well have been
entirely naked, so short and light was the tunic. When I asked Chal-az for the
Caspakian name for rope, he told me ga, and for the first time I understood the
derivation of the word Galu, which means ropeman.
Entirely outfitted I would not have known myself, so strange was my garb and my
armament. Upon my back were slung my bow, arrows, shield, and short spear;
from the center of my girdle depended my knife; at my right hip was my stone
hatchet; and at my left hung the coils of my long rope. By reaching my right
hand over my left shoulder, I could seize the spear or arrows; my left hand could
find my bow over my right shoulder, while a veritable contortionist-act was
necessary to place my shield in front of me and upon my left arm. The shield,
long and oval, is utilized more as back-armor than as a defense against frontal
attack, for the close-set armlets of gold upon the left forearm are principally
depended upon to ward off knife, spear, hatchet, or arrow from in front; but
against the greater carnivora and the attacks of several human antagonists, the
shield is utilized to its best advantage and carried by loops upon the left arm.
Fully equipped, except for a blanket, I followed Chal-az from his domicile into the
dark and deserted alleys of Kro-lu. Silently we crept along, Nobs silent at heel,
toward the nearest portion of the palisade. Here Chal-az bade me farewell, telling
me that he hoped to see me soon among the Galus, as he felt that "the call soon
would come" to him. I thanked him for his loyal assistance and promised that
whether I reached the Galu country or not, I should always stand ready to repay
his kindness to me, and that he could count on me in the revolution against Al-
tan.
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