Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1895 — A Galloway Flail. [ARTICLE]

A Galloway Flail.

The Gallovidians of old had a remarkable war weapon known as the Galloway flail. It seems to have been Indigenous to this corner of Scotland, and in the traditions of the province it occupies a prominent place. The tide of battle has been turned on more than one occasion by the skillful manipulation of the Galloway flail. The handstaff was a tough ash sapling about five feet in length, and the soople, the part for striking the barn floor when threshing, wap made of iron, about four feet long, with three joints, equidistant from each other. No swordsmen could withstand an attack with the flail. One stroke would shiver the sword to pieces and leave the* unfortunate individual at the mercy of his opponent. Then the soople with its iron joints would encircle its victim and crash him just as a boa constrictor would.