188 ANCIENT AND MODERN METHODS 



On the southwest face of the temple of Halabeed, My- 

 sore, an archer is shown with the arrow already released ; 

 the attitude of the hand, however, suggests the Mediter- 

 ranean form. In the Valconda, a small, ruined temple 

 near Calamapoor, archers are shown having the tips of all 

 the fingers on the string, in the same position as shown in 

 the later Assyrian release ; and this would indicate the 

 secondary release. 



These data are altogether too few and vague to deter- 

 mine the form or forms of release of these people. 



Concerning ancient methods of archery in America, l)ut 

 little can be said. Prol)ably the most reliable data are to 

 be found in the few Mexican records which survived the 

 shocking desecration by the Catholic Church at the time 

 of the Conquest.^ 



An examination of the plates of Kingsborough's" Mexi- 

 can Antiquities" reveals a number of hunters and warriors 

 armed with bows and arrows. The figures at best are 

 somewhat rudely drawn ; those that are in action have the 

 shaft-hand so poorly drawn that in most cases it is difii- 

 cult to make out the release. In the few drawings in 

 which the attitude of the shaft-hand is clearly shown, the 

 tertiary release is probably indicated. 



To Mrs. Zelia Nuttall Pinart I am indel)ted for tracings 

 of archers from the Ailas Dnran, Plate i., and Alap2')e 

 Quinatzin i, Plate iv. These, though quite as ambiguous 

 as those to be found in Kingsborough's, can only l)e inter* 

 preted as representing the tertiary release. In the latter 



1 The fiercely intolerant ppirit of the representatives of the church is well il- 

 lustrated by the language of a letter written by Zuniarraga, the chief inquisitor of 

 Mexico, to the Franciscan chapter at Tolosa, in January, 1531. The words are 

 as follows : "Very reverend Father, be it known to you that we are very busy in the 

 work of converting the heatlien; of Mhoni. by the grace of God, upwards of one 

 million have been baptized at the hands of the brethren of the order of our Seraphic 

 Father, Saint Francis; live hundred temples have been levelled to the ground, and 

 more than twenty thousanil ligures of tlic devils they worshipped have been broken 

 to pieces and hun\QiX."—Examphi of Iconocliism by the Conqiierors of Mexico, by 

 W. U. Holmes. 



