Golden Street, where the artisans and servants of the castle lived in tiny hovels that suited their low station in life. The people who are truly essential to the functioning of our enterprises must be kept low, so that they will not feel that they actually have influence, or they might wield it, to the discomfit of the effete in charge.

Hradcany castle, Prague. July 10, 2004; 11:30 am -- tourists have not yet filled the street shoulder to shoulder.

Medieval gun in the military museum at the head of Gold Street, Hradcany Castle.

In this museum are scores of strange guns worked into hatches, knives, pikes and combinations. I suppose that it made sense to make this new-fangled, unreliable gizmo into something that looked like a real weapon, and which you could use to fight when your opponent wasn't willing to let you take five minutes to reload before attacking you again.

Military museum, Gold Street, Hradcany castle, Prague. July 10, 2004; 11:30 am

After your shot misses, you can always hack your enemy into little pieces...

Medieval guns. What a gun should look like is evolving...

Museum, Gold Street, Hradcany Castle, Prague. July 10, 2004; 11:30 am