BOW-SHOOTING. 



By MAURICE THOMPSON, 



AUTHOR OF 'THE WITCHERY OF ARCHERY," ETC. 



M' 



ANY nations and tribes of men have been famous for their 

 archery. The Parthians, Carduchians, Scythians, and Per- 

 sians are mentioned by the old writers as mighty bowmen. 

 Some of the American Indians are very expert, though by no 

 means graceful or powerful archers. Much has been spoken and 

 printed of the wonderful effect of Indian arrows at long range. It 

 is all imagination. The best Sioux, Navajo, or Comanche archer 

 would rarely be able to hit a man at eighty yards. But the yeomen 

 of " Merrie Englande" were the world's most excellent archers. No 

 doubt they, too, have been favorably misrepresented by loving his- 

 torians. We should not be slow to forgive those who doubt the 

 difficult feats in the story of Robin Hood. He never did hit a willow 

 wand three hundred or two hundred yards, three shots in succession; 

 nevertheless, those bowmen who followed the old lords of England in 

 the days of Crecy and Agincourt, and Flodden Field and Bannock- 

 burn and Neville's Cross, were crack shots, and sent their shafts with 

 such force that it took the best Spanish mail to withstand them. No 

 doubt Robin Hood performed a good deal of fancy shooting; but 

 that he "told" every rivet and joint of a knight's armor at long 

 range with his arrow-points is a pretty tough story for an archer to 

 believe. For one, however, I gladly accept the stories of Robin's 

 poaching proclivities, and the great havoc he made with the game 

 wherever he chose to hunt. 



Taking wild game has nearly ceased to be reckoned among the 

 means of gaining a livelihood, and has fallen, or risen, as one may 

 view it, to the level of a sport or means of recreation from the 



