146 ANCIENT AND MODERN METHODS 



might possibly lead to interesting results in tracing the 

 affinities of past races. 



I am led to publish the data thus far collected, incom- 

 plete as they are, with the intention of using the paper 

 in the form of a circular to send abroad, with the hope 

 of securing further material for a more extended memoir 

 on the subject. 



My interest in the matter was first aroused by having a 

 Japanese friend shoot with me. Being familiar with the 

 usual rules of shooting as practiced for centuries by the 

 English archers, and not being aware of more than one way 

 of properly handling so simple and primitive a weapon 

 as the bow and arrow, it was somewhat surprising to 

 find that the Japanese practice was in every respect to- 

 tally unlike ours. To illustrate : in the English practice, 

 the bow must be grasped with the firmness of a smith's 

 vice ; in the Japanese practice, on the contrary, it is held 

 as lightly as possible ; in both cases, however, it is held 

 vertically, but in the English method the arrow rests on 

 the left of the bow, while in the Japanese method it is 

 placed on the right. In the English practice a guard of 

 leather must be worn on the inner and lower portion of the 

 arm to receive the impact of the string ; in the Japanese 

 practice no arm-guard is required, as by a curious fling or 

 twirl of the bow hand, coincident with the release of the 

 arrow, the bow (which is nearly circular in section) re- 

 volves in the hand, so that the string brings up on the 

 outside of the arm where the impact is so light that no 

 protection is needed. In the English method the bow is 

 grasped in the middle, and consequently the arrow is dis- 

 charged from a point equidistant from its two ends, 

 while the Japanese archer grasps the bow near its lower 

 third and discharges the arrow from this point. This al- 

 together unique method, so far as I am aware, probably 

 arose from the custom of the archers in feudal times 



