ARROWPOINTS, SPEARHEADS, AND KNIVES. 



831 



Fiy. 19. 



I'KIMARY AHKOW HE- 

 LEASE. 



I'ruf. E. S. Morse, Bulktin Es- 

 sex Institute, 1885, XVII, 

 p. 148. 



SECONDARV AKRinV RE 

 LEASE. 



Prof. E. S. M.irsi-. 



relation witb tlie spear, lance, or javeliu. It is a niacliiue, rcciuiring the 

 combined action of two objects. It was the first ])rojectile wca])on 

 known to or used by man. The world has accei)ted the existence of 

 the bow and arrow without uuich thought of its ori- 

 gin. It belonged to i)ri(nitive n)an, and we received 

 it as though part of him. IJut a moment's consider- 

 ation of the contiition of a savage 

 who had never seen or heard of any 

 machine by which missiles could 

 be tlnowii farther or harder than 

 he could <lo it with his haud — that 

 this savage should have invented 

 the spring of the bow, should have 

 utilized it by tightening the cord, 

 and arranged the whole so that by 

 drawing the cord and its sudden 

 release, could project an arrow 

 with such force as to be an effective weapon — that 

 he could do this is a matter of wonder. This inven- 

 tion of the savage is one of the triumphs of miud. 

 It is an illustration of the inventive genius and intellectuality of man. 

 There is but little doubt that it marked an -epoch iu that dead and gone 

 civilization equal to the discovery iu the later years of its complement 

 and successor, gunpowder, and it may have wrought 

 as great a change in man's condition on earth. 



Iu whatever quarter of the globe or among what- 

 ever people the bow and arrow has been found, it 

 antedates all our knowledge of it or them as ob- 

 tained through history. The earliest writers of an- 

 ti(juity mention the bow and ar- 

 row as an implement of warfare 

 orthe chase as though it wasthen 

 an old and well-known weapon. 

 Homer, Herodotus, Tacitus, 

 ►Strabo, and Pliny all mention it. 

 The many references to it in the 

 earlier books of the Bible show it to have been at 

 that time a weapon in common use. 



Prof. E. S. Morse, in his study of the different modes 

 of arrow release,' (figs. 10, 20, 21, 22, and 23) shows 

 the existence of the bow and arrow in early Egyp- 

 tian, Assyrian, Etruscan, and Grecian times, from 

 the ancient sculptures and bas reliefs, although it is 

 onlyincidental to his subject. If its existence or origin had been in ques- 

 tion his illustrations could have been multiplied numberless times from 

 the ancient sculptures, bas-reliefs, painted vases, and coins of antiquity. 



Fig. -Jl. 



lERTIARY AUUOW 

 LEASE. 



Prof. E. S. iMoi.s,-. 



Fig. 22. 



MEDITERRANEAN 



RELEASE 



Prof. E. S. Mo 



' Bulltjtiu, Essex lustitute, XVII, October to December, 1885, pp. 145-198. 



