DEXTEROUS MARKSMEN. 
225 
his aim. Their fire-arms are very contemptible, 
evidently of no use but in the fairest weather, when 
the match will burn and the priming in an open pan 
take fire. In the management of the sword and 
shield they are sufficiently dexterous, and are un- 
doubtedly most excellent archers^ 
“ They have wall-pieces, to which indeed the ca- 
libre of some of their matchlocks is scarcely inferior ,* 
but they have no cannon. Other instruments of 
war were mentioned to me ; one in particular, with 
which they heave huge stones in the attack of strong 
castles, and a sort of arrow loaded with combustible 
matter for the purpose of setting fire to buildings ; 
but neither of these came under my observation/’ * 
The Bouteas are expert marksmen, and will fre- 
quently pierce a mark scarcely larger than the crown 
of a hat at a hundred and fifty paces. None of the 
archers of the plains can compete with them at so long 
a shot ; but these latter infinitely surpass the hillmen 
in skill at short distances. I have frequently witnessed 
extraordinary feats in this way, some of which it may 
not be uninteresting to record. In a village on the Ma- 
labar coast, where a party of natives were displaying 
their dexterity in archery, I once saw a man throw an 
orange in the air and transfix it with his arrow three 
several times successively. He next placed a per- 
son at a distance of about thirty yards, with an orange 
in his hand suspended by a string attached to a stick 
from three to four feet long. At a given signal the per- 
son holding the orange swung it round, and while it 
* Turner’s Account of an Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo 
Lama in Thibet, pp. 119, 120. 
