Spear,

Spear, a weapon of offence, consisting of a wooden shaft or pole varying in length up to 8 or 9 feet, and provided with a sharp piercing point. The spear may be regarded as the prototype of the various forms of piercing weapons, such as the arrow, bolt, and dart, which are projected from bows, catapults, or other engines, and the javelin, assegai, and lance, held in or thrown by the hand. The longer and heavier spears and lances are mainly retained in the hand while in use, but there is no absolute distinction, and the throwing of a spear has in all ages been a form of offensive warfare. There can be no doubt that a weapon such as the spear is the most ancient, as well as the most universal, of warlike and hunting weapons. In its earliest form the spear would naturally consist of a simple pole of tough wood sharpened to a point at one extremity, which point might be both formed and hardened by charring in fire. From this an improvement would consist in fitting to the shaft a separate spear-head of bone, as is still practised amongst primitive races. No trace of these early spears remains to us, but of the more developed forms having heads of chipped flint or other hard stones examples are plentiful, and most ingenious methods of fixing such heads are yet practised by South Sea tribes, who carve, paint, and otherwise ornament their spears in an elaborate manner. To flint-heads succeeded heads of bronze (see Vol. II. p. 478), but these came only late in the bronze period, and were still in use when the Homeric poems were composed. The bronze spear-heads found in Great Britain and in northern Europe generally were cast with sockets, into which the end of the shaft was inserted, but on the eastern Mediterranean coasts tanged spear-heads were used. These spear-heads were various in form and size, some being three-edged like the old bayonet, others with expanded leaf-shaped blades, some barbed, and some having loopholes either in socket or blade by which they were lashed to the shaft. The war-lance of the mediæval knights was 16 feet long; the weapon of modern cavalry regiments known as lancers may be from 8½ to 11 feet long, usually adorned with a small flag near the head. The Persians at the present day forge spear-heads, for ornamental purposes only, with two and sometimes three prongs. The modern spears of savage tribes, used equally for hunting and for warlike purposes, are frequently barbed with fish and other bones, and their fighting-spears have sometimes poisoned tips. Among the South Sea Islanders a fishing-spear having several slender barbed points is an important weapon. Among civilised communities the hunting-spear continues to be used for following the wild boar and other large game. See also PIKE, HALBERT, TRIDENT.