A History of Agriculture in India v2.c86.s1.8

v2.c86.s1.8

'Their arms were a sword and a matchlock, but oftener a bamboo spear, thirteen or fourteen feet (4 to 4.3 m) long, the national weapon, which they used with extraordinary skill. Their horses were those of their own country, small, strong, and active, capable of enduring great fatigue, and taught to bound forward, or stop, or to wheel round when at full speed on the slightest pressure from their rider's leg. They had a pad for a saddle, with a blanket folded over it. When stationary, few except the chiefs had tents; and on their inroads, each man slept on the ground, with his spear struck by him and his bridle tied to his arm, ready to leap on horseback.