636 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



Dr. Bastian 1 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 2 of the method of discharging the Fan cross- 



1^^-^^^^^'?^—^ ^if >^ : ^-^^ 



La^.yg SSa 



Pig. 1. — Side view of stock of Norwegian whaling crossbow (pi. 2, a). 



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 primitive rather than degenerate. 



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

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



Distribution and varieties of the crossbow 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, a), collected by P. du Chaillu and belonging to the Pitt 

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



Fig. 3. — Side view of stock of Fan crossbow (pi. 1, a), length 502 inches. 



25-J 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 50§ inches in length, and 

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



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

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



