Book XV

. The shield was long-shaped, three-cornered, and was held in the left hand close to the body, the spear was carried in the right, so that the horse was guided by the _knee_, not by the _hand_, of the rider. The spear was a blade of steel, set into a long heft of wood, or reed, _Röhr_, probably Bamboo, sometimes even the rough trunk of a young tree, as in