382 



B O W. 





Bow. with the bow, are the Chinese. In all others it is gra- 

 v -' dually giving place to fire-arms, by which it will soon 

 be totally supplanted : In China, however, match-locks 

 only, and not the modern improvements in gunnery 

 are known ; and the rigid adherence of the people to 

 the customs of their ancestors, will long preserve the 

 bow as a warlike weapon. The power of the bow is 

 estimated by weight : thus, in describing one as a sixty 

 or seventy pound bow, it is meant that the power re- 

 quired in bendingitwouldraisesixtyor seventypounds. 

 The weakest bows used in the army are of fifty pounds: 

 the common weight is eighty or an hundred, and 

 some even go higher. A strong attachment prevailed 

 for the English long-bow, from the service of which 

 it had proved in battle ; and it was not totally eradi- 

 cated in Britain until the seventeenth century. 



To render the effect of this weapon still more 

 deadly, the point of the arrow has been imbued with 

 poison, so deleterious in its nature as to occasion in- 

 stant death. This is not a new invention; for, inde- 

 pendent of what is observed by others of the ancients, 

 Justin the historian mentionspoisoned arrows as known 

 in the time of Alexander the Great. Cum venisset ad 

 vrbem AmbigfTt regis, oppidani inmctum feiro audi- 

 entes, sagiltas vencno nrmant, atque ita gemino mor- 

 lis rulneic hoitem a miins sttmmoventesplunmos infer 

 Jicitml, (Lib. xii.cap. 10.) Pliny the naturalist specifies 

 a certain tree, from which the Gauls prepared a 

 poison for the arrows with which they shot stags. 

 The art is still preserved among the South Ameri- 

 cans, who blow arrows from a tube, as well as shoot 

 them from a bow. A credible author relates an in- 

 stance of an Englishman having killed a native in a 

 fit of passion at Macassar. Though the king par- 

 doned his offence, the other Europeans resident there, 

 apprehensive that they might themselves afterwards 

 become the objects of vengeance, insisted that he 

 should suffer that punishment which the laws of the 

 country decreed. The king assented, but willing to 

 save the culprit from unnecessary pain, he himself re- 

 solved to be the executioner with a poisoned arrow,and 

 desired the culprit to name the spot to which it should 

 be directed. He chose the great toe of the right foot, 

 which the king struck with an arrow blown from a 

 tube with wonderful precision and dexterity. Though 

 two European physicians instantly exercised all their 

 skill, and performed an amputation far above the 

 wound, the man died in their hands. Experiments 

 with poisoned arrows by other intelligent Europeans 

 prove that they occasion instant death, and that a 

 South American preparation with which they were 

 imbued, operates with greater speed and certainty 

 than the most deadly poison. Arrows charged with 

 combustible substances for setting fire to houses and 

 shipping, were extremely common of old ; and have 

 been used by the nations of India in repressing the 

 encroachments of the British during last century, (c) 

 BOW, CROSS. There is only one way of altering 

 the bow from its original simplicity, which is by 

 combining it with a stock. It is then bent by means 

 of a lever, and the arrow is discharged along a groove. 

 Thi Chinese have a kind of cross-bow, invented, as 

 they affirm, about the commencement of the Chris- 

 tian a;ra, which can discharge ten arrows at once. 

 This, so far as we can understand, is accomplished 



from the arrows lying in parallel grooves above each 

 other. 



The cross-bow is a powerful and destructive wea- 

 pon, and, like the common bow, was employed both 

 in war and hunting, and on horseback as well as on 

 foot. It discharged heavy arrows, called bolts, or 

 quarrels, having a square iron head. The conquest 

 of Ireland, in 1172, is said to have been greatly fa- 

 cilitated by the terror which the cross-bow of the 

 English inspired, the weapon being previously un- 

 known in that kingdom. Richard I. was an expe- 

 rienced cross-bowman, and had killed several persons 

 by arrows from his own hand. But he himself at 

 last fell at the siege of Chaluz, by a dart from a 

 cross-bow, at which the recorder of the event testi- 

 fies little regret, ' neque enim lex ulla asquior est, 

 quam necis artifices arte penre sua." Brompton, 

 Annnles, p. 1278. Cross-bowmen formed a numer- 

 ous corps in the ancient armies. At the battle of 

 Cressy, in 1346, the first rank of the Frencii army 

 consisted of 15,000 cross bowmen. At present we 

 are imperfectly acquainted with the powerof thecross- 

 bow ; but if we can credit the older authors, and, in- 

 deed, on consideringthat the greatest mechanical force 

 may be employed in bending it, it must be very great. 

 The arrow flies from it with equal precison, whence, 

 long after being disused in war, the cross-bow was 

 still retained in hunting. But although some authors 

 of more modern date magnify the art of theit co- 

 temporaries, it was much on the decline in the seven- 

 teenth century. Wood, in the Bowman's Glory, re- 

 lates, that " in March 1661, 400 archers, with their 

 bows and arrows, made a splendid and glorious show 

 in Hyde Park, with flying colours, and cross-bows 

 to guard them. Several of the archers shot near 

 twenty score yards with iheir cross-bows, and many 

 of them, to the amazement of the spectators, hit the 

 mark." The cross bow was prohibited by successive 

 acts of Parliament, from the year 1508, and penal- 

 ties imposed for even being in possession of it. Paul 

 Hentzner, however, who travelled through Britain, 

 in 1598, observes, that he saw in the armoury of the 

 Tower of London, cross-bows, and bows and arrows, 

 of which the English made great use in their exer- 

 cises. 



Not only the men of former times, but women also, 

 used both the bow and cross bow for amusement. 

 In the ancient illuminated manuscripts of this coun- 

 try, are represented ladies of rank with their atten- 

 dants hunting, and carrying a bow and quiver. Mar- 

 garet, the daughter of King Henry VII. and queea 

 of James IV. of Scotland, killed a buck with an ar- 

 row, on a hunting party, at Alnwick, on her progress 

 thither, in 1503; and Queen Elizabeth, and the 

 countess of Kildare in her train, were equally suc- 

 cessful wilh the cross-bow. Now, though the long 

 bow, and other kinds, are still warlike weapons among 

 the less civilized nations, yet these, as well as the 

 cross-bow, are principally used for amusement in 

 Europe. Societies are formed on the continent for 

 practising the latter, and instead of bolts or arrows, 

 bullets are discharged. 



The revival of the long bow, for warlike purposes, 

 has been recommend< d by some zealous admirers of 

 its effects in antiquity, and they conceive would 



