| On all sides, ignoring him, barbarian mercenaries brandished their javelins, bows, pikes, two-edged swords. |
| Lying at their feet were two new swords and a crossbow complete with a full quiver of arrows. |
| Usually they practiced with wooden swords, but they also practiced with quarterstaffs. |
| It was the later French adaptation which changed swords to spades, wands to clubs, cups to hearts, and coins to diamonds. |
| Some were dueling away with wooden swords, and others were throwing javelins at targets. |
| For example, in ritual, swords or knives or wands or candles are often symbolically plunged into chalices. |
