642 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



Origin of African crossbows. — I have now described the varieties 

 and distribution of the crossbow in Africa as far as the evidence at 

 my disposal allows, and it remains for me to deal with the interesting 

 problem of its origin in this part of the world. 



The theory of an indigenous origin for the crossbow in West 

 Africa, which has been held by some authorities, e. g., Sir R. F. 

 Burton, has, it would appear, been put forward in the belief that 

 the West African forms are of a far more rudimentary type than 

 any European forms, and that the differences between the crossbows 

 of the two regions are such as to preclude their having a common 

 origin, the crude and peculiar method of effecting the release being 

 the principal distinguishing feature in the African examples. Those 

 observers, on the other hand, who maintain, as I think rightly, the 

 exotic origin of this West African weapon, have endeavored to 

 account for the extremely simple release mechanism by urging that 

 this is a degenerate form, arrived at as a result of attempts on the 

 part of the savage to approximate to the more complex European 

 mechanism, and representing the best that he could do in this direc- 

 tion. Both these views are, I believe, based upon a misconception, 

 and are due probably to their promoters being unacquainted with one 

 very interesting type of European crossbow, which to my mind fur- 

 nishes the key to the solution of the problem. 



The theory of indigenous origin may, I think, be finally dismissed. 

 I propose to bring forward evidence which gives one good ground for 

 believing that the Fan and some other West African crossbows are 

 neither degenerate to any extent, nor even more primitive in con- 

 struction than some rude types of crossbow which remain even at the 

 present day in practical use in northwest Europe. 



Although it is unlikely that the crossbow is of any considerable 

 antiquity in West Africa, we may feel sure that it is not at any rate 

 a very recent introduction among the natives of this region. Du 

 Chaillu, Burton, Walker, and other early explorers of the inland 

 regions, found the weapon well established and in general use among 

 the Ba-Fan and Mpongwe tribes of the Gaboon district, among whom 

 it had assumed a well-defined and constant type, subject only to 

 minor variations. The opening up of other parts of West Africa 

 has here and there revealed the use of native-made crossbows, which 

 also exhibit a considerable uniformity of type, though well-defined 

 local varieties occur, as I have pointed out. The general uniformity 

 leads one to assume that all, or nearly all, are traceable to a common 

 prototype. These weapons are likely to become obsolete very soon, 

 since, just as the general use of the crossbow in Europe died out as a 

 result of the successful rivalry of firearms, so the process is being re- 

 peated in Africa to-day, where European muskets are rapidly ousting 

 the descendants of the European crossbow. 



