650 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910, 



To sum up briefly. It appears to me that the exotic origin of the 

 West African crossbows is practically certain. The evidence points 

 to the prototype of those crossbows which have divided stocks having 

 been a Euroi^ean crossbow of a type nearly related to that which now 

 survives only in western Norway, where it has persisted for a special 

 purpose. It seems probable that the introduction of this weapon 

 into West Africa was effected by the early European expeditions, 

 probably some time in the sixteenth century, and that the natives 

 of Nigeria were the first to adopt it from them ; also that from this 

 center it was dispersed westward to the Mandingo country, and 

 eastward through the Kamerun district to the Gaboon, and that the 

 local varieties are for the most part, at least, derivatives from one 

 original jDrototj'^pe. 



