OF ARROW-RELEASE. 147 



shooting in a kneeling posture from behind thick wooden 

 shields which rested on the ground. While all these feat- 

 ures above mentioned are quite unlike in the two peo- 

 ples, these dissimilarities extend to the method of drawing 

 the arrow and releasing it. In the English method the 

 string is drawn with the tips of the first three fingers, the 

 arrow being lightly held between the first and second fin- 

 gers, the release being effected by simply straightening 

 the fingers and at the same time drawing the hand back 

 from the string ; in the Japanese method of release the 

 string is drawn back by the bent thumb, the forefinger 

 aiding in holding the thumb down on the string, the 

 arrow being held in the crotch at the junction of the 

 thumb and finger. 



These marked and important points of difference be- 

 tween the two nations in the use of a weapon so simple 

 and having the same parts, namely, an elastic stick, a 

 simple cord, a slender barbed shaft, and used by the two 

 hands, naturally led me to inquire further into the use of 

 the bow in various parts of the world, and to my amaze- 

 ment I found not only a number of totally distinct meth- 

 ods of arrow-release with modifications, or sub- varieties, 

 but that all these methods had been in vogue from early 

 historic times. Even the simple act of bracing or string- 

 ing the bow varies quite as profoundly with different 

 races. 



The simplest form of release is that which children the 

 world over naturally adopt in first using the bow and 

 arrow, and that is grasping the arrow between the end of 

 the straightened thumb and the first and second joints of the 

 bent forefinger. I say naturally, because I have noticed 

 that American as well as Indian and Japanese children in- 

 variably grasp the arrow in this way in the act of shooting. 

 With a light or weak bow, such a release is the simplest 



