"pepper game"; "play[ed] pepper"

[victor steinbok]

There are accounts from Spanish conquests in South America where the
"natives" carried hot irons into the battle onto which hot peppers
were tossed as they approached the opposing lines. While effective in
disabling the opponent in close proximity, the weapon left them
vulnerable to crossbow fire. Of course, the stories may be apocryphal,
but the chroniclers likely would have accurately reported items of
which they were in awe, even if they contributed to the Conquista
occasional embarrassment. Weaponized capsicum, to coin a phrase, might
also have been used in the Middle East, although the record is more
fuzzy on this account. Unfortunately, I have no citations to offer--my
sources were Russian translations from 16th and 17th century Spanish
(Latin) documents and these are not commonly available.

VS-)

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 12:45 PM, George Thompson
<george.thompson at nyu.edu> wrote:
>
> This practice dates from the late 18th C, at least, and is in Grose's Classical Dictionary under the head-word "amuse".  Powdered snuff may also be used.
>
> GAT

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