636 



ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



Dr. Bastian ^ appears to have regarded the very simple " release " 

 of the Fan crossbow as being due to the inability of the natives 

 of the interior to imitate the complicated release-mechanism of 

 European crossbows, and as representing merely the best they could 

 do in the direction of imitation of a perfected type. Dr. F. von 

 Luschan, too, speaks^ of the method of discharging the Fan cross- 



ess 



Fig. 1. — Side view of stocls of Norwegian wlialing crossbow (pi. 2, «). 



bow as a degenerated derivative from a European form. I propose 

 to offer evidence which renders unnecessary the view that the Fan 

 weapon is degenerate, evidence which points to the native form 

 being a direct and but very slightly modified imitation of an actual 

 European type, itself of extremely rudimentary construction. In 

 other words, my view is that the crossbows of the Ba-Fan and other 

 allied native types are strictly prim.itive rather than degenerate. 



Fig. 



2. — Side view of stocli of crossbow from Oboru Kitty, in neighborhood of Benin, 

 Nigeria, length 33J inches. Collected by G. F. Martin. Pitt Rivers Museum. 



Distribution and varieties of the crosshow in Africa. — Of the 

 African crossbows the best known is undoubtedly that of the Fan 

 and Mpongwe tribes of the Gaboon and Ogowe Rivers, of which 

 numerous examples may be seen in museums. A typical specimen 

 (pi. 1, fig. 1, «), collected by P. du Chaillu and belonging to the Pitt 

 Kivers collection at Oxford, consists of a short and very rigid bow, 



Fig. 3. — Side view of stock of Fan crossbow (pi. 1, c), length 503 inches. 



25J inches across the arc, having a nearly rectangular section, stout 

 at the center, and tapering toward the ends. The bow is not straight 

 in the unstrung state, but has a set curve when free from strain. 

 It is set symmetrically through a rectangular hole near the fore 

 end of a slender wooden stock, measuring 50f inches in length, and 

 is fixed with wedges. This stock (fig. 3) is split laterally through- 



iZeit. fur Ethnol., vol. 6, 1874, p. (264), and vol. 10, 1878, p. (96). 

 2Zeit. fur Ethnol., 1897, p. (204). 



