By Dan Beard
Like all soldiers, war kites should be trim and martial in appearance. Their uniform may be as brilliant and fanciful as the ingenuity and taste of the builder suggests, always remembering that lightness and strength are essential qualities. An appropriate emblem, marked, painted, or pasted on, would serve not only to distinguish the combatants from their more peaceful brother acrobats but would give to each kite an individuality, and thus allow successful veterans to become famous throughout kitedom.
There are but two "arms" to this novel service, or rather two modes of warfare. The first, Unarmed, might be compared to the friendly jousts of the knights of old when they met for trials of skill. The second, Armed, is more like the mortal combat where but one survives.
Fig. 30.
Cutters.
