Chapter ARSENAL to ASSEGAY of A by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

Malay is seligi, explained by Klinkert as ‘a short wooden throwing-spear,’ which is possibly that referred to by G. de Eredia.]

c. 1270.—“There was the King standing with three ‘exortins’ (or men of the guard) by his side armed with javelins [ab lur atzagayes”].— Chronicle of K. James of Aragon, tr. by Mr. Foster, 1883, i. 173.

c. 1444.—“… They have a quantity of azagaias, which are a kind of light darts.”— Cadamosto, Navegação primeira, 32.

1552.—“But in general they all came armed in their fashion, some with azagaias and shields and others with bows and quivers of arrows.”— Barros, I. iii. 1.

1572.—

“Hum de escudo embraçado, e de azagaia,
Outro de arco encurvado, e setta ervada.”

Camões, i. 86.

By Burton:
“this, targe on arm and assegai in hand,
that, with his bended bow, and venom’d reed.”

1586.—“I loro archibugi sono belli, e buoni, come i nostri, e le lance sono fatte con alcune canne piene, e forti, in capo delle quali mettono vn ferro, come uno di quelli delle nostri zagaglie.”— Balbi, 111.

1600.—“These they use to make Instruments of wherewith to fish .… as also to make weapons, as Bows, Arrowes, Aponers, and Assagayen.”— Disc. of Guinea, from the Dutch, in Purchas, ii. 927.

1608.—“Doncques voyant que nous ne pouvions passer, les deux hommes sont venu en nageant auprès de nous, et ayans en leurs mains trois Lancettes ou Asagayes.”— Houtman, 5b.

[1648.—“The ordinary food of these Cafres is the flesh of this animal (the elephant), and four of them with their Assegais (in orig. ageagayes), which are a kind of short pike, are able to bring an elephant to the ground and kill it.”— Tavernier (ed. Ball), ii. 161, cf. ii. 295.]

1666.—“Les autres armes offensives (in India) sont l’arc et la flêche, le javelot ou zagaye .…”— Thevenot, v. 132 (ed. 1727).

1681.—“.… encontraron diez y nueve hombres bazos armados con dardas, y azagayas, assi llaman los Arabes vnas lanças pequeñas arrojadizas, y pelearon con ellos.”— Martinez de la Puente, Compendio, 87.

1879.—

“Alert to fight, athirst to slay,
They shake the dreaded assegai,
And rush with blind and frantic will
On all, when few, whose force is skill.”

Isandlana, by Ld. Stratford de
Redcliffe, Times, March 29.