Part III

he laid the end of the middle finger, to strengthen the hold. The index finger, completely flexed, rested on the arrow to keep it from slipping from the string. The extremities of the feathers, being near the nock, were neatly folded along the shaft in the grip of these fingers, to prevent them from being ruffled." The outline, (Fig. 31) , traced from his drawing clearly illustrates the position of the fingers. I do not regard this release as a modification of the Mongolian release but a new and distinct form, its only resemblance is seen in drawing the string with the thumb, the thumb-ring, which is invariably used in the Mongolian release, is absent. It is a distinct type and as Mr. Pope is the discoverer of it I leave it to him to name this new species. Mr. Pope says that "Ishi knew of several releases, saying that certain other tribes used them. The primary type, that where the arrow butt is gripped between the thumb and the flexed forefinger, he said certain Indians used, and it seemed to be a criterion of strength." The most 33 extraordinary feature of Ishi's use of the bow is that on the discharge of the arrow the bow is made to revolve in the hand as in the Japanese practice. He says, "When the arrow left the string, at the moment of release, the bow revolved, or turned over completely, in his hand, so that the back of the bow was toward him." The Japanese are the only people who cause the bow to revolve in the hand except those who use the stone bow. In this release no arm guard is required and Mr. Pope said ISHi "never used a wrist guard or, bracer, on his left arm to protect it from the string, although he nearly always pulled up his shirt sleeve. Fig. 31 Yahi California This was to avoid striking any clothing with the string, which would check the flight of the arrow. At times the string did strike his forearm, and bruise it, and after prolonged shooting his left wrist was often sore and ecchymosed." It is a curious linguistic coincidence that the name Ishi is identical to a Japanese word, meaning stone, and the first syllable of his tribal name, Yahi, Ya, is the Japanese word for arrow. In gathering material for a chapter on archers' thumb-rings I made hasty sketches of these objects in European museums as opportu- 34 nity offered. On writing up these notes I was amazed at the scant liter- ature on the subject.* With the exception of Dr. Felix von LusCHAn's paper on African thumb-rings in which he illustrates two from Africa and a new type from Korea, I found only a few archers' rings figured. In Meyrick's "Ancient Armour," 1842, is figured a ring accredited to Persia. Hansard's "Archery," 1845, copies it and in my "Ancient and Modem Methods of Arrow Release," 1885, I repro- duced it from Meyrick's work. I may add that the figure bears but little resemblance to the archer's thumb-ring, doubtless owing to poor drawing. In a work entitled "Projectile-Throwing Engines of the Ancients," with a treatise on the Turkish and other oriental bows, by *"The stfin, or thumb-rings, before alluded to, are one of the distinctions of an Oriental archer. Englishmen, it is well known, draw the bowstring with their first three fingers; the Flemings, with the first and second only; but neither use the thumb at all. The Asiatic method is the reverse of this. There the bowman draws altogether with his thumb, the forefinger bent in its first and second joint, being merely pressed on one side of the arrow nock, to secure it from falling. In order to prevent the flesh from being torn by the bowstring, he wears a broad ring of agate, cornelian, green marble, ivory, horn, or iron, according to his rank and means. Upon the inside of this, which projects half an inch, the string rests when the bow is drawn; on the outside it is only half that breadth; and, in loosing the arrow, he straightens his thumb, which sets the string free. These rings, with a spare string, are usually carried in a small box, suspended at the bow- man's side; but from habit, many retain them constantly upon the hand, for ornament as well as use. Consistent with the splendour of their other appointments, the sefin worn by those dark-eyed houris, whose feats we have so recently been contemplating, are adorned with A all the cunning of the jeweller's art. stone called jadde, crystal, jasper, and even gold, inlaid with stones of varied hue, glitter in the sunbeams as each snowy hand strains up A the silken bowstring. quilted half sleeve of crimson velvet, or fine cloth, thickly embroidered with gold flowers, protects the arm from being bruised by the cord in its return. Did not a very curious relic, recently come to light, prove Chaucer's 'gai bracer' to be a purely English fashion, we might imagine he was describing one of these. The weight of the gold in one which I wore upon my arm for a short time was remarkable; it probably amounted to three or four ounces." Hansard Book of Archery, p. 136. In no other country in the world has the practice of archery survived as in England. The Royal Toxophilite Society of London and many other archery Societies in England were founded in the 17th and 18th centuries. England may claim the greatest number of books on archery. With this supremacy in the archery field it is strange to find so brief an article on the subject in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. The word archer's ring does not appear. Its meagre bibliography makes no mention of Hansard's classical book with its steel engravings. In some unaccountable way it records my "Ancient and Modern Methods of Arrow Release" Essex Institute Bulletin, Salem, Mass., 1885, as follows: Archery, Ancient and Modern, E. S. Morse, Worcester, Mass. 1792. 35 Sir Ralph Paine-Gallway, 1907, an archer's ring is figured on a hand supposed to represent its attitude. The ring is on the thumb upside down and the attitude of the hand is entirely wrong. Most detailed and elaborate descriptions and illustrations are, however, given of the catapult, balista, trebuchet and other ancient engines of war. Dr. Berthold Laufer, in his memoir on Jade (Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series, Vol. X.) figures an archer's thumb-ring from a tomb of the Han period. It is flattened on one side, the flattened surface being slightly rounded. Mr. Laufer Wu in quoting from a Chinese book by Ta-Cheng, says: "These thumb-rings are still used in archery and manufactured in Peking from "Wu the antlers of an elk." Ta-Cheng figures also a specimen of pure white jade and arrived at the conclusion that this particular piece was reserved for Imperial use, on the ground that such rings of white jade were permitted to the Emperor only, while those of the officials were of ivory." "The mode of wearing the ring may be seen in a Chinese illustration given by P. Etienne Zl {Pratique des examens militaires en Chine, Shanghai 1896). Father Zi remarks that the most prized rings are those made of jade of the Han period, of a white gray with red veins and green stripes; those taken from the graves of students who have graduated at the time of the military examinations are reddish in color, and a notion that they afford protection against spirits is attached to them." In the Pitt-River's collection, University Museum, Oxford, Dr. Henry Balfour called my attention to a white jade ring accredit- ed to India which is the only one I have ever seen of its kind. Its pecul- iarity consists in having a deep groove on the face of the ring to engage A the bow string. blunt projecting ridge is seen on the back of the ring. It is probably Persian in origin. Fig. 32. It is somewhat flat in form like a number of the Persian rings figured in the following plates. In volume second of the two huge volumes forming the Catalogue of the Bishop Collection of jade a figure is given of an archer's ring, brownish in color, with the statement that it was found in an ancient tomb of the Han period. 36 In Badminton's "Archery," Col. H. Waldron, contributes an exhaustive bibliography of works on archery including treatises, not only books but society reports, magazines and even newspaper articles. On an examination of this voluminous list I failed to find any reference to an archer's ring. Lord Edgarton published "A Description of India and Oriental Armour", in 1896. The volume is illustrated with beautiful colored Fig. 32 Thumb ring India (?) plates besides many in black. Over one thousand catalogue numbers are given, comprising those of the Indian Museum of London, and those of his own collection, yet no reference to an archer's ring is mentioned. This seems the more strange as I sketched two thumb-rings in the Indian Museum. It is true that the collection of the Indian Museum has been transferred to the South Kensington Museum, but one should have found the rings mentioned in the numbered catalogue in Lord Edgarton's book. I have sketches of archers' rings from the British Museum accredited to India. Some of them are beautifully inlaid with rubies and emeralds. They showed no sign of wear and were worn only as ornaments. In the work above mentioned it is stated that the swords of Persia are generally worn by the Indian Rajahs, and in the same spirit 37 the Nabobs of India secured the bejeweled thumb-rings from Persia to decorate the person. On the borders of Persia and Tartary the composite bow and the thumb-ring might have been introduced, but the aboriginal bow of India was the long bow. I have already shown that the Bhils and other aboriginal tribes of India practiced the Mediterranean release. In the earliest records of India no allusion is made to the thumbring. Prof. E. Washburn Hopkins, the author of a profound memoir on the Hindu Epic going back to Buddhistic times, writes me as fol- lows: "In so far as I know about the matter the Hindu archer wore 'hand-guards' and 'finger-guards' (talatrana and anguitrana respectively) and the latter may have been in ring shape, but they are spoken of as made of iguana skin, not of metal. The warriors all wore 'fingerguards' as protection from the bow string. {Jour. Am. Oriental Soc, Vol. XIII, pp. 304 and 308.) Rings are for seals, but metal rings for bow-men are not mentioned." It is significant that the ancient people of India used finger-guards made of iguana skin, in other words, leather tips for the fingers, as used by all European archers today, and shows that these ancient people practiced the same release that is used by the aboriginal tribes of India at the present time. Having appealed to Indian classics for information about the arrow release of the early people we turn to Chinese classics and find in the ancient writings of China indisputable evidences of the use of the thumb-ring. In the Shi King, or book of ancient Chinese poetry the following allusions are made to the use of the thumb-ring, which was also called a thimble, and a pan chi, or "finger regulator." "With archer's thimble at his girdle hung," and again "Each right thumb wore the metal guard." In the Chinese Chrestomathy, translated by E. C. Bridgman, the rules for archery gives, for the eyes: "Never look at the thumb-ring," and "The thimib-ring is made of ivory and fitted to the thumb of the right hand; by it the string is held and the bow bent." In these two records we learn that in ancient times these rings were made of metal 38 and ivory. From the above consideration I cannot find any evidence that archers' rings were made in India and those objects in European museums and in private collections labeled as such were probably made in Persia or in Turkey. Hansard (p. 136) in a foot-note quotes another author as saying, "One of the early Turkish Sultans occupied his leisure in manufacturing these rings "distributing them as presents among his favorites and adds that the carnelian thumb-rings may be easily procured in the bazaars of Constantinople. An invariable accompaniment of the Mongolian release is the thumb-ring. This may be made of bronze, iron, brass, ivory, deer- horn, jade, agate, carnelian and glass. There are two distinct types of thimib-rings; one type is cylindrical, long, thick, rarely ornamented. This type belongs strictly to China; the other type is shorter, oblate, never cylindrical, one side flaring and in profile resembling, more or less the visor of a cap. This type is found in Persia, Turkey, Asia Minor and Syria. The horn-ring of the Koreans belongs to this type, the flaring part being greatly elongated. The Persian rings of jade are occasionally inlaid with gold, or with emeralds and rubies, or, when of metal, with incised floral designs. The jade rings beautifully inlaid with gems show no signs of wear, they have never been used and were worn as ornaments to the person. In the same way the Japanese inro, or medicine box, of the Japanese, at first a simple and serviceable box for stomachics became finally a marvel of gold lacquer work and was worn as an ornament by Daimios and wealthy Samurai. A very old ring of the flaring type was dug up by Dr. Felix von LuscHAN four hours out from Damascus, betwen that city and Palmyra. He graciously gave it to me remarking that it was an unicum. Having reason for believing that the Hittites used the Mongolian release and the region in which this was found coming well within Hittite territory, is it possible that this ring might prove to be a Hittite ring? The ring is of bronze and deeply worn and marks of a scroll design coarsely engraved is seen on its face, though nearly obliterated by wear, yet My enough remains to show that the design is bi-symmetrical. daugh- ter, Mrs. Russell Robb, endeavoured to interpret the intentions of 39 the artist, and the enlarged drawing here given with the ring (Fig. 33) is the result. If her interpretation is correct it may aid in ascertaining the age and provenance of the object. Fig. 33 Ancient metal thumb ring Asia Minor I am not able to find distinguishing differences between those rings marked Persia and those marked Turkey; it would seem, however, that the highly decorated ones were made in Persia when one considers the gorgeous swords with bejeweled handles known as Persian are worn by Indian Rajahs. In the illustrations to follow the orginal labeling will be preserved, bearing in mind, however, that those marked India were probably Persian in origin. At the Royal Toxophilite Society of London, where I had the pleasure of shooting with Mr. Longman, I found in the collection of the society some archery irjiplements presented by Mumford Effendi, Secretary of the Embassy, from the Sublime Porte in 1794. Among A these objects was an ivory thumb-ring (Fig. 34). curious leather flap issues from the base of the ring to prevent the string from slipping off the ring into the angle of the thumb formed by the bent joint. In the National Germanic Museum at Nuremberg there was a Turkish thumb-ring of ivory with a similar leather attachment. The date of this ring was marked 1683 (Fig.