Armed Rural FolkFigure 6.4: “Dacoits,” one of whom bears a flintlock, fleeing Indian cavalry
(Source: The Graphic, 1 March 1890)
We can confirm the usage of flintlocks in the The Graphic panel pro-
duced by the indigenous artist as well, for the hammer characteristic of
the flintlock is clearly depicted in the image (Figure 6.4).
The ubiquity of flintlocks amongst rural Burmese warriors may in
part be due to the fact that flintlocks were easier to copy and to keep in
repair, using materials one could find in the locality, than were match-
locks and wheel locks.^39
The use of flintlocks raises another question about the circulation
of another kind of martial knowledge, gunpowder production. To make
use of this kind of firearm, warriors would have had to carry their own
powder, in powder horns for example, rather than use cartridges. As a
result, they would have had to make their own powder, which would
be difficult for any one settlement to do, or purchase it from a supplier,
- The Russian Pali scholar, Ivan Pavlovich Minayeff who was in Mandalay just after
it fell to looting related that British soldiers were complaining that the dacoits “use
the kind of guns ... which it is not possible even to use in civilized war”. Minayeff,
Travels in & Diaries of India and Burma, 171. He gives no further clarification – it is
both an enticing and unfortunately incomplete observation.