BY WALTER R. HARPER. 235 



In Asia the Mongolian release is common. " The thumb is 

 protected by a guard ; the Manchus, Chinese and others use a 

 thick ring worn near the base of the thumb. It may be made of 

 any hard material, such as horn, bone, ivory, quartz, agate, or 

 jade." 



The Japanese archer uses a glove consisting of the thumb and 

 two fingers,* or a guard on the outer side of the forearm, f In 

 the Western Pacific | by far the most elaborate guards are found 

 in New Guinea. They are made of wickerwork or finely plaited 

 grass, and stretch from the wrist to the elbow. A decorative 

 effect is obtained by weaving or plaiting; sometimes plumes of 

 cassowary feathers are fastened to the upper end. Frequently 

 bands of bark are substituted, ornamented by incised patterns. 



These New Guinea guards may be called arm-guards,§ to dis- 

 tinguish them from those of the New Hebrides, which are really 

 thumb-guards. What seems to me a feasible explanation of the 

 difference between the two is that the stiff rattan string of the 

 New Guinea bow does not recoil as far as the fibre cord of the 

 New Hebridean bow, and consequently the smack would be felt 

 on the fore-arm and not on the hand. Besides, the bows are 

 lighter in the south, and the string lies more closely to the wood. 



In the Solomon Group and in islands further to the south, 

 the guard is made from a strong creeper. A length of the plant 

 is taken, split into two, the ends pared down and a spiral wrist 

 band formed. 



Intermediate between these two (British N.G. and Solomons) is 

 the arm-guard of German New Guinea. Like that of the Solo- 



* " Nature," I.e., p. 14. 

 + Mason, Smithsonian Report, 1893, pp. 635-637. 

 X For drawings of several gaards from this area, see Edge-Partington's 

 Ethnographical Album, 1st Series, Plate 146, figs. 2 and 3; 2nd Series, 

 Plate 78, fig. 9; 3rd Series, Plate 87, figs. 1 to 5. 



§ Not armlet. This word, so frequently used in the above sense by writers 

 on New Guinea, &c. , should be confined to the rings or bands which are 

 worn as decorations round the upper part of the arm. Any other use of the 

 term is very confusing. 



