OF ARROW-RELEASE. 193 



battled with the Japanese, and must have been mindful of 

 the superior archery of their enemies ; indeed on all hands, 

 with the exception possibly of the Kamtschadals at the 

 north, the Ainos have been surrounded by races practicing 

 the Mongolian release, and yet have adhered to their 

 primitive methods of shooting. 



The releases vary in their efficiency and strength. The 

 two strongest and perhaps equally powerful releases are 

 the Mediterranean and Mongolian ; and it is interesting to 

 note the fact that the two great divisions of the human 

 family who can claim a history, and who have been all 

 dominant in the affairs of mankind, are the Mediterranean 

 nations and the Mongolians. For three or four thousand 

 years, at least, each stock has had its peculiar arrow-re- 

 lease, and this has persisted through all the mutations of 

 time to the present day. Language, manners, customs, 

 religions have in the course of centuries widely separated 

 these two great divisions into nations. Side by side they 

 have lived ; devastating wars and wars of conquest have 

 marked their contact ; and yet the apparently trivial and 

 simple act of releasing the arrow from the bow has re- 

 mained unchanged. At the present moment the European 

 and Asiatic archer, shooting now only for sport, practice 

 each the release which characterized their remote ancestors. 



Want of material will prevent more than a passing ref- 

 erence to a peculiar practice of archery which Moseley 

 alludes to as pedestrial archery. It is a matter of com- 

 mon record that in widely separated parts of the world, as 

 South America, China, and Africa, the archer uses his feet 

 in drawing the bow. In an " Essay of Archery" by Walter 

 Michael Moseley, 1792, the writer says : " It is recorded 

 by ancient writers that the Ethiopians draw the bow with 

 the feet ;" and again, Xenophon speaking of the Caducians 

 says : " They had bows which were three cubits long, and 



ESSEX IJSST. BULLETIN, VOL. XVH 25 



