BOW BOWDOIN. 



651 



ends, in returning to its natural state, throws out an 

 arrow with great force. The figure of the bow is 

 nearly the same in all countries, having generally 

 two inflexions, between which, in the place where 

 the arrow is fixed, is a right line. The Grecian bow 

 was nearly in the form of the letter 2 : in drawing it, 

 the hand was brought back to the right breast, and 

 not to the ear. The Scythian bow was distinguished 

 for its remarkable curvature, which was nearly semi- 

 circular ; that of the modern Tartars is similar to it. 

 The materials of bows have been different in different 

 countries. The Persians and Indians made them of 

 reeds. The Lyciau bows were made of the cornel- 

 tree ; those of the Ethiopians, of the palm-tree. 

 That of Pandarus (II. iv. 104) was made from the 

 horn of a mountain goat, sixteen palms in length : 

 the string was an ox hide thong. The horn of the 

 antelope is still used for the same purpose in the 

 East. The long-bow was the favourite national 

 weapon in England. The battles of Cressy (1346), 

 Poictiers (1356), and Agincourt (1415) were won by 

 this weapon. It was made of yew, ash, &c., of the 

 height of the archer. The arrow being usually half 

 the length of the bow, the cloth-yard was only 

 employed by a man six feet high. The arbalist, or 

 cross-bow, was a popular weapon with the Italians, 

 and was introduced into England in the thirteenth 

 century. The arrows shot from it were called 

 mtarrels. The bolt was used with both kinds of 

 bows. 



Of the power of the bow, and the distance to which 

 it will carry, some remarkable anecdotes are related. 

 Xenophon mentions an Arcadian whose head was 

 shot through by a Carduchian archer. Stuart (Ath. 

 Ant. i.) mentions a random shot of a Turk, which he 

 found to be 584 yards ; and Mr Strutt saw the Turk- 

 ish ambassador shoot 480 yards in the archery ground 

 near Bedford square. Lord Bacon speaks of a Turk- 

 ish bow which has been known to pierce a steel tar- 

 get, or a piece of brass, two inches thick. In the jour- 

 nal of king Edward VI., it is mentioned that a hundred 

 archers of the king's guard shot at an inch board, 

 and that some of the arrows passed through this and 

 into another board behind it, although the wood was 

 extremely solid and firm. It has been the custom of 

 many savage nations to poison their arrows. This 

 practice is mentioned by Homer and the ancient his- 

 torians ; and we have many similar accounts of mo- 

 dern travellers and navigators from almost every part 

 of the world. Some of these stories are of doubtful 

 authority, but others are well authenticated. Some 

 poison, obtained by Condamine from South American 

 savages, produced instantaneous death in animals 

 inoculated with it. The poisoned arrows used in 

 Guiana are not shot from a bow, but blown through 

 a tube. They are made of the hard substance of the 

 cokarito-tree, and are about a foot long, and of the 

 size of a knitting-needle. One end is sharply pointed, 

 and dipped in the poison of wooraia : the other is 

 adjusted to the cavity of the reed, from which it is to 

 be blown, by a roll of cotton. The reed is several 

 feet in length. A single breath carries the arrow 

 thirty or forty yards. See Bancroft's History of 

 Guiana. 



Bow, in music, is the name of that well known im-. 

 plement by the means of which the tone is produced 

 from viols, violins, and other instruments of that 

 kind. It is made of a thin staff of elastic wood, 

 tapering slightly till it reaches the lower end, to 

 which the hairs (about eighty or a hundred horse- 

 hairs) are fastened, and with which the bow is strung. 

 At the upper end is an ornamented piece of wood or 

 ivory, called the nut, and fastened with a screw, 

 which serves to regulate the tension of the hairs. It 

 is evident that the size and construction of the bow 



must correspond with the size of the species of viol- 

 instruments from which the tone is to be produced. 



Bow INSTRUMENTS are all the instruments strung 

 with cat-gut or goat-gut, from which the tones are 

 produced oy means of the bow. The most usual are 

 the double bass (violono or contrabasso) ; the small 

 bass, or violoncello ; the tenor (viola di braccio) ; and 

 the violin proper (violino from violon). In reference 

 to their construction, the several parts are alike: the 

 difference is in the size. See Piolin and Quartett. 



BOWDICH, Thomas Edward ; an ingenious and 

 enterprising man ; one of the victims of the attempts 

 to explore the interior of the African continent. He 

 was born at Bristol, in June, 1793, and was sent to 

 Oxford, but was never regularly matriculated. At 

 an early age he married, and engaged in trade at 

 Bristol. Finding the details of business irksome, he 

 obtained the appointment of writer in the service of 

 the African company. In 1816, he arrived at Cape 

 Coast Castle. It being thought desirable to send an 

 embassy to the Negro king of Ashantee, B. was cho- 

 sen to conduct it ; and he executed with success the 

 duties of his situation. After remaining two years in 

 Africa, he returned home, and soon after published 

 his Mission to Ashantee, with a Statistical Account 

 of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of other 

 Parts of the interior of Africa (1819, 4to). Having 

 offended the company in whose service he had been 

 engaged, and having, therefore, no prospect of far- 

 ther employment, yet wishing ardently to return to 

 Africa for the purpose of visiting its hitherto unex- 

 plored regions, B. resolved to make the attempt with 

 such assistance as he could obtain from private indi- 

 viduals. He, however, previously went to Paris, to 

 improve his acquaintance with physical and mathe- 

 matical science. His reception from the French 

 literati was extremely flattering. A public eu- 

 logium was pronounced on him at a meeting of 

 the institute, and an advantageous appointment 

 was offered him by the French government. To 

 obtain funds for the prosecution of his favourite 

 project, B. also published a translation of Mol- 

 lier's Travels to the Sources of the Senegal and 

 Gambia, and other works ; by the sale of which he 

 was enabled, with a little assistance from other per- 

 sons, to make preparations for his second African 

 expedition. He sailed from Havre in August, 1822, 

 and arrived in safety in the river Gambia. A disease, 

 occasioned by fatigue and anxiety of mind, here put 

 an end to his life, January 10, 1824. B. is said to 

 have been a profound classic and linguist, an excel- 

 lent mathematician, well versed in most of the physi- 

 cal sciences, in ancient and modern history, and in 

 polite literature. He was a member of several lite- 

 rary societies in England and abroad. 



BOWDOIN, James, a governor of Massachusetts, was 

 born, in the year 1727, at Boston, New England. 

 In 1753, he was elected a representative to the ge- 

 neral court, and, in 1756, became a member of the 

 council. In this situation he continued until 1769, 

 when he was negatived by governor Bernard, on 

 account of his decided whig principles, but afterwards 

 accepted by Hutchinson, because he thought his 

 influence more prejudicial " in the house of represen- 

 tatives than at die council board." In consequence 

 of his being a member of the committee who prepared 

 the answer to the governor's speeches, which asserted 

 the right of Great Britain to tax the colonies, he was 

 negatived by governor Gage, in the year 1774. In 

 the same year, he was elected a delegate to the first 

 congress, which was to meet at Philadelphia, but 

 was prevented from attending by the state of his 

 health. In 1775, he was moderator of the meeting 

 in which the inhabitants consented to deliver up their 

 arms to general Gage, on condition of receiving per- 

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