58 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



In Crawford's "Indian Arcliipelago " occurs the following passage: — 

 * "Among tlie savages of all nations we find the use of the club, the 

 sling, and the bow and arrow, the first and universal weapons of all man- 

 kind.! To these the Indian islanders add the tube for discharging arrows, 

 which are sometimes poisoned with a prepared vegetable juice. The 

 Balinese are the only tribe, in any degree civilized, which retains the 

 general use of this practice. The more powerful nations have long since 

 given it u|), we may presume rather from an experience of its inefficacy, 

 than from any conviction of the immorality or baseness of the practice. 

 The Javanese historians, in rendering an account of a war conducted by the 

 Sultan of Mataram, against the people of Bali and Blamlangan, as long ago 

 as the year 1639, mention the use of poisoned arrows on the part of the 

 former, as an extraordinary circumstance new to their coimtrymen, and 

 which excited at first some alarm. In the use of the bow and arrow, and 

 the sling, I do not discover that the Indian islanders have acqmred any 

 extraordinary dexterity. The Javanese are extremely fond of the exercise 

 of the bow and arrow as an amusement (sitting, not standing, when drawing 

 the bow), but are anything but skilful in the use of it, and seldom succeed 

 in throwing the arrow above a dozen yards. In the attack upon the palace 

 of the Sultan of Java, in 1812, the Javanese threw stones from slings in 

 great numbers, but without inflicting a serious wound, or even dangerous 

 contusion, in the period of two days. The knowledge of iron must soon 

 have in a great measure suspended the use of these less perfect weapons, 

 and given rise to that of the spear and kris. These may be justly styled 

 the favourite weapons of the Indian islanders." That arrows were once 

 freely used, is shown in the romances founded by the Javanese on Hindu 

 story or mythology, j 



In Africa the bow is used by the Nubians — whose women twist the 

 hair into the numberless tiny plaits commonly seen among the Western 

 Pacific islanders — the Hottentots or Bushmen who use the barbed and 

 poisoned arrow, and other tribes, authorities for whose names I have 

 not consulted. Livingstone, in one of his works, § gives the following : — 

 " Poisoned arrows are made in two pieces. An iron barb is firmly 

 fastened to one end of a small wand of wood, ten inches or a foot long, the 

 other end of which, fined down to a long point, is nicely fitted, though not 

 otherwise secm-ed, in the hollow of the reed, Avhich forms the arrow-shaft. 

 The wood, immediately below the head, is smeared with the poison. When 

 the arrrow is shot into an animal the reed either falls to the ground at once, 



* Vol I, p. 222. 



t Note. — This does not appear to apply to the people of Australia or the Esquimaux. 



\ Crawford : Vol. II., p. 25. § " The Zambesi," p. 466, 



