I found these images on felines (cats) and birds carrying incendiary masses, intended to set cities on fire.
The explaination given in one manuscript is that when planning to set fire to a city, you would abduct a cat from this city and put a container with a burning mass in it on this animal. When released the cat would run back in panic and hide in a barn which in turn would be set on fire. Apart from the obvious cruelty, the idea seems far fetch and impractical.
Below the above mentioned manuscript which i posted in an earlier thread as well: (Ms. Codex 109 - Helm, Franz, approximately 1500-1567 - Feuer Buech)
http://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/med...urrentpage=277
The cat illustrated below is carrying what looks like somesort of Loshult cannon on its back, and the bird (pigeon) has a smaller version of this, also strapped on its back.
The Loshult cannon would break the feline's spine with its 9Kg, but the text explains it to be somesort of sack like those on fire arrows.
The design has quite a lot of faults though... the cat would be badly burned the instant this contraption was lit, making it doubtfull it would ever enter the city (screaming and smoke all alround, just plain cruel
). The bird wouldn't do any better, if it ever would get of the ground, the payload would be so small and also dangerous to the bird that either way it would burn the mass before it reaches the destination, or the bird would turn into a short living phoenix.
These are my views on this subject, maybe someone else has more information on this strange siege method
Best wishes,
Marcus
