(And don't ye try to pocket me goods)
(And don't ye try to pocket me goods)
The dagger is a short, bladed weapon designed for stabbing rather than cutting. A poniard is a dagger sith a short narrow blade, and a stiletto is a weapon with a
long thin blade, usually grooved. Asian daggers include the Malayan kris, or creese, with a long, wavy-edged blade, and the kukri, a knife used by the Gurkhas of Nepal. In medieval times, daggers were used as an auxiliary to the sword. They were
of different forms, one of the commonest being the misericord, with a thin blade used for the coup de grāce (French for "finishing stroke"). In the age of dueling, a dagger called the main gauche (French for "left hand") was
employed to parry the blows of an opponent's sword or to break its blade.
A dagger blade found in the Lasithi plain, dating about 1800 BC, is the earliest known predecessor of ornamented dagger blades from Mycenae. It is engraved with two spirited scenes: a fight between two
bulls and a man spearing a boar. The most elaborate inlays--pictures of men hunting lions and of cats hunting birds--are on daggers from the shaft graves of Mycenae. Cretan
and mainland tombs have produced many examples of weapons adorned with gold. Modest ornaments are gold caps on the rivets that join hilt and blade, but the whole hilt is often cased in gold. An example from Mycenae has a
cylindrical grip of openwork gold flowers with lapis lazuli in their petals and crystal filling between them; the guard is formed by dragons, similarly inlaid. Its convenient size made the dagger inconspicuous to wear and easy to draw, giving it advantages over the sword in
many situations. The ability to throw these weapons made them an incredible weapon for those who were on the move and wished their attackers delayed, if for a short time only.
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long thin blade, usually grooved. Asian daggers include the Malayan kris, or creese, with a long, wavy-edged blade, and the kukri, a knife used by the Gurkhas of Nepal. In medieval times, daggers were used as an auxiliary to the sword. They were
of different forms, one of the commonest being the misericord, with a thin blade used for the coup de grāce (French for "finishing stroke"). In the age of dueling, a dagger called the main gauche (French for "left hand") was 
employed to parry the blows of an opponent's sword or to break its blade.
A dagger blade found in the Lasithi plain, dating about 1800 BC, is the earliest known predecessor of ornamented dagger blades from Mycenae. It is engraved with two spirited scenes: a fight between two
bulls and a man spearing a boar. The most elaborate inlays--pictures of men hunting lions and of cats hunting birds--are on daggers from the shaft graves of Mycenae. Cretan
and mainland tombs have produced many examples of weapons adorned with gold. Modest ornaments are gold caps on the rivets that join hilt and blade, but the whole hilt is often cased in gold. An example from Mycenae has a
cylindrical grip of openwork gold flowers with lapis lazuli in their petals and crystal filling between them; the guard is formed by dragons, similarly inlaid. Its convenient size made the dagger inconspicuous to wear and easy to draw, giving it advantages over the sword in 
many situations. The ability to throw these weapons made them an incredible weapon for those who were on the move and wished their attackers delayed, if for a short time only.