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But let a victim come within reach, and the attitude of prayer is promptly abandoned. Suddenly unfolded, the three long joints of the deadly fore-limbs shoot out their terminal talons, which strike the victim and drag it backwards between the two saw-blades of the thighs.
Three strokes of the lancet must abolish all offensive movement. Where will the first stroke be delivered? In front is a real engine of warfare, a pair of powerful shears with toothed jaws. Let the fore-arm close upon the upper arm; and the imprudent insect, crushed between the two saw-blades, will be torn to pieces; wounded by the terminal hook, it will be eviscerated.
With the exception of a few flint saw-blades from Warka , Fara, Zurghul, and Babylon , no similar remains had been found in Babylonia until, in 1918, Capt. The continued excavations carried out by Mr. H. R. Hall for the Museum in 1919 have produced more of the same evidence from both places, besides a new 'prehistoric' site at Tell el-Ma'abed or Tell el-'Obeid near Ur.
Koldewey curiously speaks of the saw-blades as 'palaeolithic. They are, of course, nothing of the sort. Characteristics: flint, chert, obsidian, green and red jasper, and quartz-crystal flakes, arrowheads, cores, and saw-blades. This ware is often very fine, so much so as to look as if wheelmade.
In neat squads they lay there: long thin knives with straight and curved cutting edges; handled wires, curved into hooks and eccentric corkscrew shapes; scalpels of different sizes; forceps, clasps, retractors, odd metal claws, circular saw-blades and a variety of other unclassified instruments.
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