210 GUARDS OF THE KING OF BHUTAN book iii
on
the watch, shoot it without fail, generally in the nose or the eyes,
for if it is shot in the body the skin will be worth nothing on account
of the blood which flows from the wound, and causes the hair moistened
by it to fall out.
The
King of Bhutan always employs 7,000 or 8,000 men as his guard. These
people are armed with bows and arrows, and the majority also carry axes
and shields, the former having a point on one side like a war mace. It
is long since the Bhutanese first acquired the use of the musket, iron
cannon, and gunpowder,1 which is of long grain, and is very
strong. I have been assured that on their guns figures and letters are
visible which are more than 500 years old.2 They cannot be
taken out of the kingdom without the express permission of the
Governor, and no one dare carry away a musket unless his nearest
relatives go bail that it will be faithfully returned. Except for this
difficulty I would have brought one away with me. By the characters on
the gun, as those who were able to read assured me, it had been made
180 years. It was very thick, the mouth shaped like a tulip, and the
interior polished like a mirror. On two-thirds of the gun there were
bands in relief, and some gilt and silvered flowers between two of
them, and the ball which it carried was an once (Fr.) in weight. The
merchant of Bhutan being so particular about the return of the musket,
no matter what offer I made, I could never persuade him to sell it to
me, and
1 In his paper on Early Asiatic Fire Weapon^ General
Maclagan says, ' While there appears to be no good evidence in support
of the idea that Asia had a knowledge of gunpowder and used firearms
before Europe, there are plain indications that the knowledge of the
most improved weapons of war, both before and since the introduction of
gunpowder, and the skill to make and use them, came from Europe to
India and other Asiatic countries': Journ. Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol.
xlv, p. 64. He concludes, too, that there is no good evidence to
support the belief that the Arabs were the first to use powder. He
considers the European nations were the first to discover its most
important form and application : p. 70 (Ency. Brit., xii. 723 f.; CamÂbridge Hist, of India, i.
271). Were space available, much interesting information might be given
here of the huge size of the guns which were used in India. One at
Bijapur was 4 feet 8 inches diameter at the muzzle, and had a calibre
of 2 feet 4 inches. It was cast at Ahmadnagar in 1549. {Asiatic Journ., 1827, p. 65 ; Bombay Gazetteer, xxiii. 638 ff.)
2 This carries back to the year a. d. 1150 or thereabouts. See p. 217.
