Introduction

i :C0 = CD =CoO CO Morse, Edward Sylvester Additional notes on arrow release 6N 498 ADDITIONAL NOTES ON ARROW RELEASE By EDWARD S. MORSE PEABODY MUSEUM Salem, Massachusetts 1922 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/additionalnotesoOOmorsuoft a o ADDITIONAL NOTES ON ARROW RELEASE By EDWARD S. MORSE PEABODY MUSEUM Salem, Massachusetts 1922 printed by 113 Market St.. Lynn, Mass. v^ ^y NOV 3 - 1966 ^"SITY Of j[136B9l ADDITIONAL NOTES ON ARROW RELEASE Edward S. Morse In 1885 I published, in the Proceedings of the Essex Institute, a paper entitled "Ancient and Modern Methods of Arrow Release." From the difficulty I found in ascertaining the various attitudes of the hand in drawing the bow I began to realize that no one had made a study of the subject and that I had made a discovery. Prof. E. B. Tylor, the distinguised author of "Prehistoric Times," in acknowledg- my ing the receipt of a copy of paper, wrote me as follows: " It is won- derful how much there is to be learned by close examination into points that at first sight do not seem as if they wanted any. I had no idea till I looked at your sketches that there were systematic differences among peoples in their way of discharging their arrows."* The main facts, with their illustrations, quickly appeared in Russian, German, Dutch and French reviews and were republished in England and start- ed a number of investigators on the subject. In the Memoir, which has been out of print for some years I asked for information on the subject particularly concerning savage people, as I regarded my work as only a preliminary outline of the subject. As a result of this appeal In the Badminton Library. Archery, C. J. Longman, Esq., says (p. 76) "In discussing methods of drawing the bow occasion will frequently arise to refer to the pamphlet by Prof. Morse, as he was the first to investigate the subject. His researches on a seemingly trivial matter have a high ethnographic interest, and his classification is so sound that it must form the basis of any further researches on the subject." I received many items and sketches from all parts of the world and now, nearly thirty-five years after, I have compiled this information and the present paper is the result. Before proceeding further I venture at this point to republish a my few figures illustrating the five forms of arrow release t given in first paper on the subject which has long been out of print. PRIMARY RELEASE Fig. 1 I found the simplest form of release was that which the children of all nations use the world over: that is in grasping the arrow with the thumb and bent forefinger. I have seen the children of Ameri- cans, Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Negroes play with a toy bow and arrow and they all invariably grasp the arrow with the thumb and I bent forefinger. It was interesting to discover that some of the lower savage races, like the Ainu, practice this release. The arrow accompanying this release is generally knobbed at the nock end and is gashed or roughened to secure a firmer pinch on the arrow. This I termed the primary release. fThe English archer prefers the word "loore" to release. Release seems to me a better word for we release a prisoner; we speak of a loose button, a loose hinge, some- thing that is still there, like a loose tooth. SECONDARY RELEASE Fig. 2 In another and higher group of savages such as the Pueblo Indians, the arrow is not only grasped by the thumb and bent forefinger but the second and third fingers are brought to bear upon the string, thus enabling the archer to use a stronger bow. This I termed the secondary release. TERTIARY RELEASE Fig. 3 A third form of release I determined through the courtesy of Mr. Le Flesche, an educated Omaha Indian. This release con- sisted in holding the forefinger nearly straight and not bent as in the primary and secondary releases and with the tips of this finger and the tips of the second and third fingers pulling the string, the arrow being held between the tips of the thumb and forefinger. This form I termed the tertiary release and found it wide spread. From the testimony of Lieut. Vogdes, U. S. A. and Col. James Ste- phenson, this was the form of release used by the Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Assiniboins, Comanches, Blackfeet and Navahoes and doubtless other North American tribes. C. J. Longman, Esq., in his interesting and valuable contribu- tions to the Archery volume of the Badminton Library Series, does not recognize this release and classifies it with the secondary form and says, "It seems doubtful, however whether there is sufficient distinction between the secondary and tertiary looses to justify their separation, and all finger and thumb looses, when the tips of the fin- gers assist in drawing the string will be classed here as secondary." my I cannot agree with distinguished friend, for further study shows that it is a marked North American method. A study of West Coast Indians, Mexican tribes, Surinam Indians, and even the figures in ancient Mexican codices, tracings of which I have received from that eminent scholar Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, convinces me that the tertiary release was employed by these ancient people. It is found sporadically in other parts of the world. MEDITERRANEAN RELEASE Fig. 4 The archers of Europe shooting only for sport use a release that I have named the Mediterranean release because I discovered that -- -- the Mediterranean nations the Caucasians of Blumenbach for nearly 2000 years have used this release. Even the ancient relatives of this race, the Hill tribes of India, practice it. It consists in drawing the string with the tips of the first, second and third fingers; the thumb is inert and the Uttle finger is rarely used. Pictures and engravings of the 17th century and before depict the archer as using the first and second finger only. This indicates either greater strength or a lighter bow. This release, as practiced today requires either a glove or finger tips of leather to protect the ends of the fingers. MONGOLIAN RELEASE Fig. 5 The Asiatic races employ a method far removed from those forms already mentioned. The string is drawn back by the thumb which is sharply bent over it, while the forefinger is bent over the tip of the thumb to aid in holding it. The arrow is held in the junction of the forefinger and thumb. This method of release necessitates Harold H. Bender, Professor of Indo-Germanic Philology at Princeton University has lately published an extremely illuminating book, entitled "The Home of the Indo-European." He gives good reasons for believing that the term Indo- European is preferable to that of Aryan or Mediterranean. The term Caucasian of Blumenbach is, of course, nearly obsolete. the wearing of a stout thumb-ring made of bone, horn, jade or metal, the edge of the ring engaging the string. All the Asiatic races with- out exception use this realese; the Mongols, Manchus, Tibetans, Koreans and Turks use this release with various forms of thumb rings, the Japanese using a glove with a grooved thumb. Even the Persians, who are not Mongoloid, have acquired this release from being interposed between Mongoloid people on the east and west. In attempting to make out from ancient drawings, such as those on Greek vases, the attitude of the hand in drawing the bow the great difficulty arises from the fact that in many cases the artist was not an archer, and, furthermore, so long as the bow was stretched no attention was paid to the attitude of the hand in stretching it. When I began the study I was amazed at the inability of travelers to recall the method of arrow release, though they admitted they had seen the savages shoot a hundred times. I recall a striking illustration of this in the case of my friend, Frank Hamilton Gushing, who had lived among the Zuni Indians for several years. He brought to Boston many years ago a number of Zuni Indians who were hospitably entertained by Mrs. Mary Hemenway at her summer home in Manchester. I was invited to spend the day with them. I asked Mr. Gushing the method the Zuni used in shooting the arrow. He looked at me vaguely and said, "Why, I have shot with them a thousand times, isn't it this way?" pushing a lead pencil between the thumb and bent forefinger. I told him that was the lowest form of release and as the Zuni are Pueblo Indians I thought they must use the secondary release, that is beside the thumb and bent forefinger on the arrow, the second and third finger assisted in drawing the string. He immediately constructed a bow from a stick, made a rude arrow, strung the stick and invited one of the chiefs to illustrate the Zuni method of drawing the bow. We eagerly watched the hand as he drew the string and the attitude of his fingers was precisely as I had predicted. Mr. Gushing gave me a hearty slap on the shoulder while ejaculating -- "Spl endid!" Nowhere was an acute observer who had lived and shot with the Zuni and yet had failed to observe the simple atti- 6 tude of the hand in shooting. What must it have been with the ancient artists and sculptors, many of whom had never shot an arrow! The infinite variety of drawings on Greek vases of archers drawing the bow is sufficient evidence of their incompetency in regard to por- traying the attitude of the hand in archery. In ancient rock sculpture the wear and tear of age render the details indistinct, the position of the fingers on the bow string is often obscure. These conditions coupled with the inaccuracy of the sculptor render these details unre- liable. The general attitude of the hand, however, can be recognized. In all the releases except the Mongolian the attitude of the hand as a whole can usually be seen and it assumes the form of a more or less closed fist. In the Mongolian release, however, the attitude of the hand is with fingers bending downward at right angles to the back of the hand which is uppermost. my In first memoir I expressed the belief that the different releases characterized different races and that is more or less true. I find that these lines are not hard and fast, however, as I had at first sup- posed but that here and there savage people the world over practice a release which I associated with the higher races, namely, the Mediter- ranean. Even the Mongolian release, the most exclusive of them m all, is found Africa in which not only the thumb-ring is used but also an extraordinary device in the form of a yoke of wood grasped in the hand and first described by Dr. -Felix von Luschan. Further reference to his discovery will be made. my In first paper I tried in vain to find the method of release among the Indians who were common in New England in the early part of the seventeenth century. I had secured the Penobscot and Micmac release and this was the primary form. In 1865 the Prince Society of Boston reproduced a rare bopk entitled "Wood's New- England's Prospect," by William Wood, published in London in 1634, copies of which are of great rarity. In the Prince Society reproduction the quaint and original spelling is carefully preserved. William Wood was evidently a gentleman and a scholar, Latin phrases often occur. The author was a keen observer. He notices what few travelers do, the attitude of the hand of the savage in drawing the bow. The fol- lowing extract describes very clearly that the Indians in New England employed the primary release. "For their shooting they be most desperate marksmen for a point blancke object, and if it may bee possible Cornicum oculos configere they will doe it: such is their celerity and dexterity in Artillerie, that they can smite the swift running Hinde and nimble winked Pigeon without a standing pause or left eyed blinking; they draw their Arrowes between the forefingers and the thumbe; their bowes be quicke, but not very strong, not killing above six or seven score", (p. 97) Fig. 6 Micmac I am indebted to Dr. S. J. Mixter for a photograph of a Micmac Indian who illustrated to him the method of drawing the arrow. It shows the typical primary release. (Fig. 6.) The Indian was one of the oldest Micmacs in the Cascapedia settlement in Canada. He 8 told Dr. Mixter that other tribes in Canada used the same method and he knew of no other. These facts I mentioned in my first paper but the figure which was not pubHshed at that time is now given. In a supplement to the International Archieves of Ethnology, Vol. XVII, is a memoir by Dr. C. H. DeGoeje, on the "Ethnology of The Surinam Indians." A large number of arrows are figured and these have a raised ring of fibre at their nock ends indicating the primary release. / J Fig. 7 Tierra del Fuego The Ona tribe of Tierra del Fuego practiced the primary release and also the tertiary release as show in the illustrations of these savages in a book entitled, "Through the First Antarctic Night", by Frederick A. Cook, M.'D. Figure 7 is a rough copy of one of the illustrations in the book. In the British Museum is an arrow from Tierra Del Fuego, col- lected by Mr. H. N. Moseley in 1876. This arrow is 27X inches A long. It has two short and wide barbs parallel to the nock. shoulder of fibre and gum near the nock would indicate the primary release. (Fig. 8.) sC^^ Fig. 8 Tierra del Fuego From photographs shown me at the Hamburg Museum of natives of the Solomon Islands in the act of shooting the method of release was primary. At the Paris Exposition of 1889 were many negroes from the French Protectorates, Africa. Among these were negroes from Sene- gal and from them I got their method of release which was primary, the how was held nearly horizontal. In Sir Samuel Baker's book, "Albert Nyanza," Page 63,isthefol- lowing description of the archery of the Africans of that region. '.' Fort- unately the natives are bad archers the string is never drawn with the two forefingers as in most countries, but is simply pulled by holding the arrow between the middle joint of the forefinger and thumb." This clear description indicates the primary release. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Kimpei Otsu, Chief of the Aboriginal Bureau of Formosa and to Mr. S. Ishii, of Kaihoku, of Formosa, for a number of interesting photographs representing the savages of that Island in the act of drawing the bow*. Seven of these photo- graphs represent members of the Vonum tribe of various villages. 10 These are indicated as domesticated savages, all of these but one are using the primary release. (Fig. 9.) The one exception is drawing the arrow with the left hand and all four fingers are bent over the string suggesting a modification of the tertiary release. Two others are marked head-hunters belonging to the Taiyal, or tattooed tribe. These are also practicing the primary release. Fig. 9 Formosa In the Trocadero Museum, in Paris, is