THE EVOLUTION OF THE ARROW 
39 
where we are accustomed to expect feathers and a notch in 
which the bowstring is fitted. But even this is not always the 
case, for in the arrows of the Congo pygmies the base is flat 
without a notch ; they are so primitive in culture that they 
have not discovered the advantage of a notched arrow. Now 
with an ordinary twisted bowstring, unless the arrow is notched, 
it is almost sure to slip when the bow is drawn : the pygmies 
therefore make their bowstrings out of a flat strip of vegetable 
fibre apparently derived from a Raphia or some such palm. 
Of course there may be some good reason for this : vegetable 
fibres capable of being twisted into a round string may be 
scarce in the Congo forests, but one can hardly think that it 
would not have occurred to a hunting people to use the tendons 
Pygmy Arrow with Leaf instead of Feathers 
of animals they killed and convert them into bowstrings, as 
many of the East African tribes do. It may, however, be that 
in the damp forests animal tendons are unsuitable for the 
purpose. The tendons of the back are usually used for this 
purpose by the East African tribes. 
We now come to the feathering of the arrow 7 . One occasion- 
ally sees an arrow without any, but it is believed they are only 
those used by young people for play. All tribes in East and 
Central Africa appear to be aware of the fact that some attempt 
at feathering an arrow is necessary to obtain precision. The 
most primitive form will again be found in the arrows of the 
Congo pygmies, and they simply stick a piece of tough, greenish- 
grey leaf through a slit in the arrow. This is doubtless a good 
rough-and-ready device, and if a leaf breaks off another can be 
readily obtained, because they rarely leave the forest. The 
next stage comes from the people on the edge of the forest 
east of Kenya, who insert a strip of thin hide through a slit 
