It is a rawhide
rope, not dissimilar to those of the Western plains and cow-camps
of my youth. The honda is a golden oval and accurate weight for
the throwing of the noose. This heavy honda, Chal-az explained,
is used as a weapon, being thrown with great force and accuracy at
an enemy and then coiled in for another cast. In hunting and in
battle, they use both the noose and the honda. If several warriors
surround a single foeman or quarry, they rope it with the noose
from several sides; but a single warrior against a lone antagonist
will attempt to brain his foe with the metal oval.
I could not have been more pleased with any weapon, short of a
rifle, which he could have found for me, since I have been adept with
the rope from early childhood; but I must confess that I was less
favorably inclined toward my apparel. In so far as the sensation
was concerned, I might as well have been entirely naked, so short
and light was the tunic. When I asked Chal-az for the Caspakian
name for rope, he told me ga, and for the first time I understood
the derivation of the word Galu, which means ropeman.
Entirely outfitted I would not have known myself, so strange was
my garb and my armament. Upon my back were slung my bow, arrows,
shield, and short spear; from the center of my girdle depended my
knife; at my right hip was my stone hatchet; and at my left hung
the coils of my long rope.
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