Word: swords
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Turkish Yoke. The volunteers were of several sorts. The first, writes David Howarth in this wry and lively short history, consisted of officers left over from the Napoleonic wars of the previous decade. Each had at least one fine uniform, one sword and a brace of pistols. A few were what they said they had been; others actually had fought at grades several degrees below their announced ranks. A large number were simply counterfeit, like the Italian named Tassi, who said he had been Napoleon's engineer in chief but who confessed, when it became explosively clear...
...worth. It rose as a unifying force above countless tribal deities and, therefore, tribal conflicts. But, facing outward, it also encouraged exclusivity and intolerance-the line between the believer and the infidel, the chosen and the unchosen. Christianity and Islam have had the historical habit of descending with a sword on strangers. The world's other great monotheistic faith, Judaism, has traditionally been more defensive...
...most cases there is no law to justify Patriot attacks on Loyalist sympathizers. Often it is simply a matter of mob violence. When a crowd of Patriots seized a Massachusetts customs official named John Malcohn, a witness recalls: "Being disarmed of sword, cane, hat and wig, he was genteelly tarred and feathered [until] he had more the appearance of the devil than any human being." Malcohn survived that mauling ?only to be trapped by another mob three months later. This time "he was stript stark naked, one of the severest cold nights this winter, his body covered all over...
...when one of his officers insisted on bringing a native Tahitian back to England as a souvenir (and promised that he would eventually be returned home). The Tahitian, a youth named Omai, soon became the pet of London Society. Dressed up in an elaborate frogged coat and sword, he was honored by budding Novelist Fanny Burney, who praised him as a "lyon of lyons." Sir Joshua Reynolds painted a portrait of him in a turban. He was even introduced to King George, whose name he mispronounced as he greeted him: "How do, King Tosh...
...William Bryant of Trenton performed tests on a torpedo of Surinam and proved that it could send a shock "through metallic substances, like an old sword blade," but when the sword was "armed with sealing wax, the electric fluid would not pass...