In the final defence of Acre (1291) we hear of balistae bipedales (with a forked rest?) and other vertiginales (traversing on a pivot) that shot 3 quarrels at once, and with such force as to stitch the Saracens to their bucklers—­cum clypeis consutos interfecerunt.

The crossbow, though apparently indigenous among various tribes of Indo-China, seems to have been a new introduction in European warfare in the 12th century.  William of Brittany in a poem called the Philippis, speaking of the early days of Philip Augustus, says:—­

      “Francigenis nostris illis ignota diebus
      Res erat omnino quid balistarius arcus,
      Quid balista foret, nec habebat in agmine toto
      Rex quenquam sciret armis qui talibus uti.”
          —­Duchesne, Hist.  Franc.  Script., V. 115.

Anna Comnena calls it [Greek:  Tzagra] (which looks like Persian charkh), “a barbaric bow, totally unknown to the Greeks”; and she gives a very lengthy description of it, ending:  “Such then are the facts about the Tzagra, and a truly diabolical affair it is.” (Alex. X.—­Paris ed. p. 291.)

[4] The construction is best seen in Figs. 17 and 19.  Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
    in the cut are from Chinese sources; Figs. 6, 7, 8 from Arabic works;
    the rest from European sources.

[5] Christine de Pisan says that when keeping up a discharge by night
    lighted brands should be attached to the stones in order to observe and
    correct the practice. (Livre des faits, etc., du sage Roy Charles,
    Pt.  II. ch. xxiv.)

[6] Professor Sprenger informs me that the first mention of the Manjanik
    in Mahomedan history is at the siege of Tayif by Mahomed himself, A.D.
    630 (and see Sprenger’s Mohammed [German], III. 330).  The Annales
    Marbacenses in Pertz, xvii. 172, say under 1212, speaking of wars of
    the Emperor Otho in Germany:  “Ibi tunc cepit haberi usus instrumenti
    bellici quod vulgo tribok appellari solet.”

There is a ludicrous Oriental derivation of Manjanik, from the Persian:  “Man chi nek”!  “How good am I!” Ibn Khallikan remarks that the word must be foreign, because the letters j and k ([Arabic] and [Arabic]) never occur together in genuine Arabic words (Notes by Mr. E. Thomas, F.R.S.).  It may be noticed that the letters in question occur together in another Arabic word of foreign origin used by Polo, viz. Jathalik.

[7] Dufour mentions that stone shot of the mediaeval engines exist at
    Zurich, of 20 and 22 inches diameter.  The largest of these would,
    however, scarcely exceed 500 lbs. in weight.

[8] Georg.  Stellae Ann. in Muratori, XVII. 1105; and Daru, Bk. viii.
    sec. 12.