Last weapon of Mohicans
QUESTION In the film The Last Of The Mohicans, what is the unusual weapon that Chingachgook uses to kill his enemy, Magua?
This was the gunstock war club, a weapon shaped like a rifle stock and made from a curved piece of hardwood.
On the raised side was a deadly doubleedged knife blade of flint, horn or iron. it was decorated with brass tacks.
The design almost certainly came from Native American warriors observing the effective impact power of a spent musket wielded by the barrel and swung at an adversary in hand-to-hand combat.
This style of weapon was known from the 17th century and was popular in the MidWest among the sauk, Meskwaki and Eastern sioux from the 18th century. By the 1850s, the clubs were found across the country, from the Great Lakes tribes in the East to the Lakota on the western plains. several examples can be found in the National Museum of the American indian in Washington DC, including a slim, two-bladed weapon owned by chief sitting Bull.
The film version of The Last Of The Mohicans, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, diverges from James Fenimore Cooper’s book in many places. After Uncas is stabbed to death by Magua, it is hawkeye (Day-Lewis) who avenges his death by shooting Magua with his long rifle — and not Chingachgook with his club.
David Hayward, Lichfield, Staffs.
QUESTION Has DNA analysis established which creatures are in Loch Ness?
EvEry species that lives in or around Loch Ness has been identified by DNA analysis — the Loch Ness monster is not one of them. in september 2019, scientists from the University of Otago in New Zealand took hundreds of samples of the water in the loch and DNA tested them.
They identified 11 species of fish, three types of amphibian, 22 species of birds and 19 mammals, including humans.
To the disappointment of Nessie hunters, not one DNA sample came from the beastie popularly believed to be a plesiosaur, an extinct marine reptile.
it is not possible for a creature — especially something the size of the Loch Ness monster — to exist in an enclosed body of water without its bodily waste, blood and shed skin cells floating about.
Angus Gafraidh, London e11.
QUESTION What is the best joke told by a modern politician?
FUrThEr to earlier answers, when he was leader of the Opposition in 2000, William hague was speaking in the
Commons about London’s forthcoming mayoral elections.
he said the Labour Party was not content with one candidate, but were putting up two to share the position. Frank Dobson would be the ‘day mayor’ while Ken Livingstone would be the ‘night mayor’.
Nick Burdess, Stockton-on-Tees, Co. Durham.
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