436 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1936 



Spanish] crossbows still preserved as cult objects by the Indians in 

 North Carolina. 



It is this last great spread of the crossbow that probably explains 

 its sporadic use among the Fans of the Gaboon, and their southern 

 neighbors in the Cameroon. Balfour has adduced reasons for be- 

 lieving that it was brought there by Dutch or Danish navigators 

 during the latter part of the fifteenth century ; " but it would 

 seem historically more probable that the Portuguese did so. Dutch 

 and Norwegian whalers probably introduced the toy crossbow to 

 Greenland in the seventeenth or eighteenth century.^* From there 

 it may have spread along the Arctic regions of North America, and 

 those found in use among modern Eskimo boys in Alaska may be a 

 result of this diffusion; or they may have got them from Kussian 

 traders from the Pacific. 



CHINESE REPEATING CROSSBOW 



The remarkable Chinese repeating crossbow in the National Mu- 

 seum collection (pi. 6) deserves special description in this historical 

 section. This clever invention has a magazine above the stock with 

 room for 20 arrows, which may be rapidly fired in pairs. The bow- 

 string passes through a slot running along the bottom of the maga- 

 zine (pi. 6, fig. 1). When the magazine is pushed forward by its 

 handle, the string is caught in the back of the slot, and two arrows 

 fall into place. As the handle is drawn back this automatically 

 draws the bow (pi. 6, fig. 2) ; when it comes clear back, so that the 

 magazine rests squarely on the stock, a little pin puslies the bow- 

 string up and releases it, firing the arrows. This process can be 

 repeated so rapidly that 10 pairs of arrows may be fired in half a 

 minute. Although this type of crossbow is not very powerful, a 

 barrage of arrows, especially if they were poisoned, might have a 

 demoralizing effect on the enemy. 



This repeating crossbow is illustrated at least as early as in the 

 Wu pei cMh, a Chinese work on military science published in 1621, 

 but it is probably much older. Yet it was used even as late as 1895 

 by Chinese troops from the interior in the war with Japan. Need- 

 less to say, it was useless against an enemy fully equipped with 

 modern arms. 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE CROSSBOW 



The true home of the crossbow is the great land mass embracing 

 the continents of Europe and Asia. Specimens in the National 

 Museum collection come from an island south of Sumatra, the Philip- 



^3 Balfour, Henry, The origin of west African crossbows. 



** Thalbitzer, William, ed.. The Ammassalik Eskimo. Mcdd. Gr0nland, vol. 39, p. 471, 

 1914. 



