Part II

20 Bribri the method of release of the Talamanca Indians we find in the National Geographic Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 2, an article by Paul B. Popenoe, on Costa Rica in which is given a picture of these Indians. In some respects the picture agrees with Dr. Bovallius' statements; the arrows are six feet long, they are evidently shooting fish but the attitude of the hand in all thiree indicates the tertiary release. At Manchester, England, I met a traveler, whose name I have misplaced, who told me he had been among the Botocudo Indians of Brazil, and he had observed that in using the bow they drew it with two fingers on the cord, which indicated the Mediterranean release. 22 William Jno. Steains, employed by an English firm in constructing a railway in Brazil undertook, at his own expense, the exploration of the Rio Doce and its tributaries. This valley is inhabited by wild Botucudo Indians. These Indians practice the Mediterranean release using two fingers unless the bow is very stiff when three fingers are used. In Strutts "Sports and Pastimes" there is the figure of an archer copied from Saxon Manuscript of the eighth century. The release shows three fingers on the string with the arrow between the first and second fingers, indicating a typical Mediterranean release. Usually the figures of ancient archers show only two fingers. Mrs. Clement Waters sent me a photograph of the bronze doors of the famous cathedral at Amalfi. These doors were made in Constantinople in 1075 A. D. Among the paneled figures is an archer plainly showing the Mediterranean release and probably showing the use of the two fingers. The figures are very archaic. The designs were evidently made by one who was not a Turk as the Turks practice the Mongolian release. In a famous psalter executed by Geoffrey Lonterell, in 1345, the figure of an archer is given shooting at a target, the Mediterranean release is clearly shown. Three fingers are used instead of two as in most of the figures over two hundred years old. In the Royal Art Museum, Berlin, are a number of ancient Greek vases, red on black, on which an archer is shown using the typical Mediterranean release. In the same Museum is a bronze statue of Eros bracing the bow in English style. The bow being short the lower end rests against the knee instead of the foot. In the Museum of St. Germain, near Paris, is a remarkable replica of Trajan's Column, in this the Dacians are shown using the Mediter- ranean release, two fingered. In many of the figures represented the bow is very short. Realizing that the aboriginal tribes of India were Aryan in origin it was most important to ascertain the methods of archery among the savage tribes in the interior. An East Indian officer, Capt. 23 John Johnstone, visiting Boston, promised to secure for me, through a brother officer, the method of arrow release of primitive tribes inhabiting the region in which he was stationed. Some months after Capt. Johnstone's departure I got a letter from him, accompanied by the clearest drawings showing the arrow release among the native tribes. The following is an extract, "I asked a friend of mine, Capt. Luard, who is compiling the Gazeteer of Central India to have some sketches prepared for me for transmission to you and he has sent those I en- close, together with two photographs. .1 hope they will be of some use to you. The Bhils (pronounced Bheels) are among the most primitive tribes of Central India and are looked upon as aborigines. They do not admit themselves to be Hindus, though when brought into close contact with the latter they are apt to adopt many Hindu customs and deities. They still use bows and arrows in their native haunts chiefly against wild beasts, but occasionally against each other." The following figure (Fig. 21) is a reduced reproduction of one of the drawings. The release is an absolutely perfect Mediterranean with two fingers. In a collection of photographs published by the London Indian Museum in 1868, entitled "The People of India." Vol. 1, Plate 21, is shown a native of the Korwa group from Chola Nagpoor and regarded as an aborigine; the release is typically Mediterranean. Edward Tuite Dalton, in a work entitled "Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal," figures a number of the Korwas shooting with a bow. These people are considered one of the wildest of the Kolarian tribes. The arrow release is clearly shown and it is distinctly Mediterranean. The Korwas are found in the hills rising in the Sirguja and Jaspur Estates in the Province of Shutia, Nagpur. Edward Horace Mann, Esq., in his work "On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands"* says, "It is a singular fact that the mode in which the tribes of Great Andaman discharge their arrows differs from that in vogue among the Jar'awa. While the latter are *Reprinted from the Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 24 Fig. 21 Bhil, India 25 said to adopt the plan usual among ourselves of holding the nock of the arrow inside the string by means of the middle joints of the fore and middle fingers and drawing the string with the same joints, it is the practice among the former to place the arrows in position between the thumb and the top joint of the forefinger and to draw the string to the mouth with the middle and third fingers." The Jar'awa then practice the Mediterranean release while the others practice the second- ary release. As an illustration of the instability of arrow release among Fig. 22 Andaman savages, I refer to the archery number of the Badminton series in which Mr. Longman presents some reproductions of photographs taken by Mr. M. V. PoRTMAN from his unpublished notes. These I have copied, (Fig. 22) and they represent in turn the primary, a modification of the tertiary, Mediterranean and Mongolian, and the one de- scribed above is certainly secondary. It may be of interest to remark that here is one of the lowest savage groups of people, the only pure negrito people existing, so Mr. Portman says, so low that they are in 26 an amorphous condition regarding archery. A crooked wooden stave for a bow, arrows without barbs and, according to Mr. Portman, who lived among them for fourteen years, the poorest shots imaginable Fig. 23 Inge, Little Andaman and yet presenting examples of the five pronounced releases known. They are in such an embryonic condition that they have not yet established a permanent release. The Onge Tribe inhabiting the Little Andaman practice the Mediterranean release (Fig. 23). In the third volume of RatzeVs History of Mankind, page 356, is an illustration of a Veddah of Ceylon in the act of shooting the bow. 27 The photograph from which it was derived was made by Emil Schmidt of Leipsic. The release is Mediterranean, three fingered. (Fig. 24). At the St. Louis Fair I saw members of a tribe called Bagoba from the Philippines. One of them shot for me and he used the primary Fig. 24 Veddah F g. 25 Negrito release. The arrows were not feathered and their flight was crooked. A negrito child among them, 19 months old, shot for me in the most vigorous manner. He used the tertiary release with thumb on the string, the bow held vertical. (Fig. 25). 28 Mr. Verner, at the St. Louis Fair had charge of a number of pygmies from the Philippines. A number of the tribe known as Chiri shot for me using the Mediterranean release. (Fig. 26. See frontispiece.) The best shots among them used the tertiary release. In the Ethnological Museum at Dresden I copied from a photo- graph an Aeta (Negrito) from Cagayan, Northern Luzon, in the act of shooting and he used a typical Mediterranean release. (Fig 27). In the Smithsonian Annual Report for 1899 (p. 540) is a picture of a Negrito from the Province of Maravale, Luzon. The release shown is Mediterranean. Fig. 27 Negrito May In Collier's Weekly, for 13, 1899 is a picture of a Tinguian bowman of the Philippine Islands. The release shown is distinctly Mediterranean, two fingered. In photographs of the marvellous ruins at Angkor, Cambogia, I found the figure of an archer drawing the bow and the release is plainly Mediterranean. These ruins date back to the ninth century. One might have looked for a Mongolian release. When I first defined the Mongolian release I supposed it was strictly limited to Asiatic nations. Dr. Felix von Luschan, Director of the Ethnological Museimi of Berlin, in a letter to me dated July 16, 1891 announced the discovery of the Mongolian release in Africa. The following is an extract from his letter, " I am sending you a paper model of a quite new form of arrow release. It came to the Museum some days ago. I will have it photographed and published in the Transactions of our 29 Anthropological Society, but it will be several months before it comes out, and I want you to know it as soon as possible. Our specimens came from the Wootah people (interior of Kameroun, West Africa) and were brought here by Lieut. Morgen. You might best call them rings for the metacarpus although they are not round. They consist of a small thin board of hard wood from four to five millimeters in thickness. This board is bent near its middle so as to form a yoke, both sides remaining quite parallel and being held together by a thin leather string, which may be tightened or loosened according to the size of the hand which is to enter. The hand enters with all four fingers, the forefinger on the side of the round angle, the little finger on the open side, naturally the broad end which is generally orna- mented and comes on the dorsum manus. I hope the description is plain enough so that you may understand this mar- vellous kind of release. It is by far the most powerful I ever heard of, because you engage the whole hand and not only one or two fingers, and still the instant of loosing the arrow is exceedingly delicate and smooth. I think that when one has once seen this release one will find it preferable to all others, according to the Fig. 28 form of their bows and the immense force they can employ. The Wootah have also quite enormous leather bracelets for A the protection of the bow hand. section of such a bracelet would have the form you see here (Fig. 28) only the small ovoid part forms the real bracelet, the rest is a hollow cone of thick black leather which is also ornamented with much care and taste." The Transactions of the Berlin Society of Anthropology published his paper on the "Bend- ing of the Bow," a free translation of a portion of which is given in the end of this paper in an appendix. I have already called attention to the fact that in indistinct rock sculpture or drawings the attitude of the hand resembles more or less a closed fist, while in the Mongolian release the fingers appear to be bent downward, the back of the hand being uppermost. In a stone sculpture of a Hittite archer discovered by Dr. Luschan, and with 30 his permission figured by Mr. Longman in "Badminton's Archery," p. 67, the attitude of the hand indicates the Mongolian release. This figure was discovered in Asia Minor. The expression on the face of this Hittite figure recalls Roger Ascham's description in his Toxophilus, written in 1544, of his squad of awkward bowmen. Among other grotesque expressions, he says, "Some make a face with wrything theyr mouth as though they were doing you wotte what." (Fig. 29). Mr. Rudolph Virchow permitted me to make a drawing of a Fig. 29 Hittite Archer bronze ax in his possession which was dug up in the Caucasus. It was believed to date a thousand years, B.C., the age being determined by coins associated with it. Upon its face was an incised outline of an archer of which I made a rubbing. Both hands were upon the string but the outline was so faint and so roughly drawn that it was impossible to determine the method of release; the bow was very short but certainly not Mongolian. The peculiar head-dress or helmet may be identified by some classical archaeologist. 31 Mr. F. W. Gookin, of Chicago, has kindly sent me a copy of a Persian archer from Alfred Maskell's "Hand book of Russian Art and Art Objects in Russia." The archer is delicately engraved on an ancient silver bowl of Sassanian workmanship in the Hermitage Museimi, Petrograd. Mr. Gookin, in a letter, says "The description of the bowl which is very meagre states that it bears an inscription in Pehlir characters (the ancient writing used in Persia imder the dynast3'' of the Sassanians) which has not been deciphered, the date therefore is uncertain, but from a comparison with a monument known under the name of Takt-i Bostan situated near the modem town of Kermanschat, which was executed during the reign of Bahran Kermanschat Fig. 30 Sassanian (A. D. 389-399) it is supposed to have been made about the same period." Mr. Gookin's exquisite drawing is difficult to reproduce on account of the delicacy of the lines. He has made an enlarged copy of the right hand showing clearly the MongoUan release (Fig. 30). The thumb is seen curving up and the forefinger is locked over the end of the thumb. The bow is strictly Mongolian in character and hence a composite bow. This evidence of the Mongolian release establishes a date showing at least how early the method was introduced from China, for unquestionably being Aryan, in still earlier times the Mediterranean, and before this the primary release must have been used. The most complete and satisfactory description of an arrow release, and all details of an archer's practice is given by Saxton T. Pope in the University of California Publications in American 32 Anthropology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 3. In this Memoir, entitled "Yahi Archery," Mr. Pope gives the results of a study of the last survivor of a tribe of Indians with whom Mr. Pope associated for three years. The author says, "The present paper is an attempt to present the facts concerning the archery of one tribe, the Yahi or Deer Creek Indians of north central California, the most southerly divi- sion of the Yanan stock as represented in the person of its last survi- vor, ISHi, who lived from 1911 to 1916 at the University of California." Mr. Pope lived with Ishi for three years,, hunted with him in the woods and watched him as he fabricated his bows and arrows, illus- A trating all the details in his paper. colored plate is given of 18 arrowheads made from flint and obsidian. The incredible precision and delicacy in the making of these arrowheads almost exceeds belief. Mr. Pope's "Memoir" is really a monograph of the archery of a single tribe. In shooting, the bow was held in a horizontal position with the back of the hand downward, the arrow resting on the bow between the thumb and forefinger. Mr. Pope says, "The arrow release was a modification of that known as the Mongolian type, that is he 'drew' the bow with the right thumb flexed beneath the string. On the thumb nail