with his pincers, as our forefathers would have let him do ;
the forceps we expect the dentist to use is indeed a
variety of the smith's tool, but it is a special variety
for a special purpose. Thus in the history of instruments,
the tools of the mechanic cannot well be kept separate from
the weapons of the hunter or soldier, for in several cases it
will be seen that both tool and weapon had their origin in
some earlier instrument that served alike to break skulls
and cocoa-nuts, or to hack at the limbs of trees and
of men.
Among the simplest of weapons is the thick stick or
cudgel, which when heavier or knobbed passes into the
club. Rude champions have delighted in the ferocious
roughness of such a gnarled club as Herkules in the pictures
carries on his shoulder, while others spent their leisure hours
in elegant shaping and carving, like that of the South Sea
Island clubs to be seen in museums. From savage through
barbaric times the war-club lasted on into the middle ages
of Europe, when knights still smashed helmets in with
their heavy maces. Mostly used as a weapon, it only now
and then appears in peaceful arts, as in the ribbed clubs
with which the Polynesian women beat out bark cloth.
