288 SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



Welle Kiver, have both. The shafts of the Monbuttoo arrows are of 

 reeds, and differ from all others of that vicinity in being winged with 

 pieces of genet's skin or plantain leaves. The bows are over 3 feet 

 long, and the strings made of a strip of the split Spanish reed, which 

 possesses more elasticity than any cord. A hollow piece of wood on the 

 bow protects the thumb from the blow of the string. The arrow is dis- 

 charged from between the middle fingers. The Dinkas 216 of the Upper 

 Nile have no bow and arrow; their weapons are lances and clubs. The 

 Bongos 2 " use the lance, bow, and arrow. Their bows are 4 feet long, 

 the arrows ;5 feet, made of solid wood, and anointed with the milky juice 

 of euphorbia. The Madi and Bari 218 tribes of Central Africa also use 



FlG. 13S. — Quiver of Uganda, Africa. 



poisoned arrows; so do the Ashantees, Fans, and Aponos of the "West. 



The modes of handling the bow in Africa are various, and have always 

 been so. In ancient Egypt" 9 several modes were adopted even by the 

 trained troops. The mural monuments show a bowman with three sup- 

 plementary arrows held by the thumb, the string being pulled to the 

 shoulder by the lingers. An arrow being discharged another one is 

 jerked up, and three are kept in the air at a time. Another figure shows 

 a soldier drawing a longer bow, having a larger arrow, and palling with 

 the thumb and linger. 



The Assyrians drew the bow to tin' cheek or to the ear, as did the 

 Saxons — not to the breast like the (J reeks. The larger Assyrian bow 

 was carried over the shoulder, the man first putting his head through 



liwrintui'tli's "Africa," m>1. i p. 154. 

 '"Ibid., vol. ii, p. 300. 



- ls liaktr's •• Isinailia," pi. opp. p. 135. 

 219 Wilkinson; Kitto, vol. i, p. 452. 



