20 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



probably the Brown Bess, to test the two for warlike purposes 

 at loo yards range, and the bow won easily. 



General military opinion had then gone against the bow, 

 but obviously there was not much in it, for the rifle was only 

 supplied to the rifle brigade, and not to the general army. 



The latter was first armed with the rifle at the time of the 

 Crimea, when the Minie rifle was adopted. A well-tempered 

 sharp arrow could cut through armour as well as the slow 

 bullets from hand guns, but armour remained of some use 

 against both, and it only disappeared as big guns came 

 into general use in the field, which was long after they 

 had been used in and against Norman castles and town 

 walls. 



Perhaps, with the exception of the Assyrians and the 

 ancient Egyptians, the most ancient warriors were a boasting, 

 cowardly lot, like the leading gentlemen of Homer, and the 

 still more cowardly understudies who stood still to watch 

 while their chiefs were engaged in combat. Even Goliath 

 advanced to single combat, and his side never fought at all 

 when David's shooting instrument went true. It is not, 

 however, on record that Goliath had a shooting instrument, 

 and it may fairly be urged that this early knight intended 

 to bar shooting, and was a true forerunner of the knights of 

 the Middle Ages, who also attempted to bar shooting by the 

 aid of Pope Innocent III. Passing over those ancient Greek 

 and Israelitish times to the classic period of Greece and 

 Rome, when battles were fought by the whole of the armies 

 engaging, we find that then shooting in any form had very 

 little to do with results. That is to say, the bow and arrow, 

 which became so deadly in the Plantagenet and Lancastrian 

 wars in France, were not relied upon. The reason seems to 

 have been that the classic Greek soldier with armour and 

 target was pretty secure against the arrow, but the knight's 

 horse in the Middle Ages was not, and could not be made so. 

 Incidentally, therefore, it is fair to assume that war had again 

 degenerated, by means of chivalry, to the single combat 

 championship stage, and that the first side to make the whole 



