From a plant which in this district was called the "boom bulawn" the boys long ago used to make what they called "water-guns". They were on the same principle and were very like the bicycle pump of the present day. The rod was a stick with a rag tied at one end which fitted tightly into the "gun barrel". These "guns" were like flowerful syringes and sometimes the boys would divide into two armies and engage in a "war" in which the ammunition was the water of the stream on the banks of which they got the material from which they made the guns, but the "war" never lasted very long because the barrels of the guns were very easily split.Stephywalsh