Any firearms peeping out of a carriage-window commonly sufficed to keep such fellows at a respectful distance, as the swineherd is never armed with any other weapon than his fokos. The fokos is a hatchet, with a long handle, which the Kanasz hurls with great dexterity. Whenever he desires to pick out and slaughter one of his hogs, either for his own use or for sale, the attempt would be attended with danger, in the half-savage state of these animals, without such a weapon. The fokos here assists him, which he flings with such force and precision, that the sharp iron strikes exactly into the centre of the frontal bone of the animal he has marked out: the victim sinks on the earth without uttering a sound, and the drove quietly proceeds on its way. That he can strike down a man with equal precision at eighty to a hundred paces, is proved by the gallows at the entrance of the forest — the three-legged monument of his dexterity. During recent events too the surgeons of the Austrian army will readily furnish the Kanasz and Csikos with certificates of their ability and skill.
Filed under: History, Hungarian, Martial culture | Tagged: Axe, csikos, fokos, kanaz, magyar, swineherd
