OF ARROW-RELEASE. 179 



If this release really represent a permanent form of 

 shooting, then this form should have been designated the 

 primary release ; but, so far as 1 have learned, it seems to 

 be a temporary mode resorted to only under special con- 

 ditions. In testing the stiffness of a bow, for example, 

 the string is grasped in this manner. An instance of this 

 is seen on one of the Assyrian slabs, where the king is 

 represented as trying a bow. I was informed by a Zuni 

 chief that when shooting in a great hurry the string was 

 vigorously clutched by three or four fingers, the arrow 

 being held against the first finger by the thumb. 



The Ainos on the west coast of Yezo also informed me 



3 



Fig. 46. Assos. 



that when shooting in great haste the string was clutched 

 in precisely this manner. In the use of a bow of any 

 strength, the attrition of the string on the fingers must be 

 very severe ; and only a hand as tough, and as thoroughly 

 calloused as the paw of an animal, could endure the fric- 

 tion of the string in such a release. For convenience of 

 reference this form may be referred to provisionally as the 

 Archaic release. 



In abas-relief in marble representing Herakles drawing 

 a bow, a figure of which is given in Rayet's Monuments 

 de VArt Antique, it is rather curious that the hand is rep- 

 resented as clutching the string in the vigorous manner 

 just described. The date of this work is put down as the 

 fourth or fifth century B. C. Doubts have been expressed 



