4® ARC 
ARCHfri/Aus, the fon of Herod the Great, was declared 
*king of Judea the fecond year after the birth of Chrid. 
He put to deatli 3000 perfons before he went to Rome to 
be confirmed by Augudus. That -emperor, beverthelefs, 
■gave him half of what had been pottefl'ed by his father; 
but at length,, on frelh complaints exhibited againd him 
by the Jews, he banifhed him to Vienne in Gaul, A. D. 6, 
where lie died. 
Archelaus, the fon of Apollonius, one of the greated 
fculptors of antiquity, was a native of Ionia, and is thought 
to have lived in the time of the emperor Claudius. He 
executed, in marble, the apotheofis of Homer. This 
matterpiece in fculpture was found in 1568, in a place na¬ 
med Fratocchia, belonging to the princes of Colonna, 
■where, it is faid, the emperor Claudius had a pleafure- 
houfe. Father Kircher, Cupert, Spanheim, and feveral 
other learned antiquarians, have given a defeription and ex¬ 
plication of t his work. 
ARCHE'MORUS, fon of Lycurgus, king of Nernaea, 
in Thrace. Being placed upon a parfley-plant by Hypfi- 
ipyle his nurfe, while (lie went to (hew a fountain to the 
princes who were going to beliege Thebes, he was killed 
by a ferpent, which the princefs dettroyed, and a fountain 
rofe out of the ground beneath Archemorus. Adradus 
and the other princes were fo afflicted at this accident, that 
they indituted games in honour of Arcliemorus, called 
Nemrean, which were celebrated every three/years: the 
combatants put themfelves in mourning, and the victors 
•were crowned with parfley. 
ARCHEN'DA, f. A powder prepared of the Egyptian 
privet, to be applied to the feet to check their fetid 
odour. 
AR'CHER, or Sagittarius, one of the condella- 
tions of the northern hemifphere, and one of the twelve 
figns of the zodiac, placed between the Scorpion and Ca¬ 
pricorn. See Sagittarius. 
ARCH'ERS,y. [of arcus, a bow ; whence arcuariuSj 
and even arquis, and arquites, as they are aifo denominated 
in the corrupt (late of the Latin tongue.] A kind of fol- 
diery armed with bows and arrows. Archers were much 
employed in former times in the anniesof England, France, 
and mod other nations of Europe; but they are now laid 
afide, except in fome of the eaftern countries ; where there 
are companies of archers (till retained in their armies. 
AR'CHERY, f. The art of (hooting with a bow and 
arrow.—Among the Englifii artillery, archery challenged! 
the pre-eminence, as peculiar to our nation. Camden .—T he 
aCt of (hooting with the bow. The art of an archer ; 
Say from what golden quivers of the (ky 
Do all thy winged arrows fly ? 
Swiftnefs and power by birth are thine. 
3 Tis I believe this archery to flievv, 
That fo much colt in colours thou 
And fkill in painting dolt bellow 
Upon thy ancient arms, the gaudy heavenly bow. Cowley. 
In molt nations the bow was anciently the principal im¬ 
plement of war, and by the expertnefs of the archers alone 
was often decided the fate of battles and of empires. 
Bows were fird condruCted probably from the rough and 
unformed bought of trees ; but gradual improvements 
would be added as men became more and more converfant 
with the knowledge of natural objects. We find, by He¬ 
rodotus, that it was the cudom of fome nations to make 
bows of reeds, or cane; the Badri, he fays, tifed fome of 
this kind, as did the Indi; and the fame practice prevails 
at this day in Perfia and India, and in fome parts of Ame¬ 
rica. But thefe materials are nbt well adapted to produce 
a very eladic bow, which, unlefs made drong and difficult 
to draw, would have but little efteCt in projecting the ar¬ 
row. Indeed, this is commonly the cafe with almod all 
the bows made ufe of by favages, and thofe other nations 
who are little acquainted with the ufe of edged tools. 
The mod-edeemed bows of Perfia, it is faid, are made 
by fattening two pieces, one of horn, the other of wood, 
ARC 
Oil each other, by means of catgut, which is bound tight 
around the two, from end to end ; by which means they 
are kept firm together, and cannot (lip when the bow is 
drawn. After this the bow is covered with the bark of a 
tree, which is exceedingly tough and flexible, and upon 
this fmooth furface they paint various figures of branches 
leaves, birds, and other decorations, generally intermixing 
gold and (ilver pigments among them. They then cover the 
whole with a tranfparent varnifh, which proteCls it from 
wet and damp. In Perfia and Tartary, and in other partst 
of the eadern world, the horns of the antelope are manu¬ 
factured into bows, many of which are very excellent 
weapons. They are generally much fhorter than thofe 
tiled in this country, feldom exceeding four feet in length. 
The two pieces of which thefe indruments are made are 
joined firmly in the centre, and are ufually ornamented 
with painting and gilding. 
The Otaheite bows are very long, and confid of one piece 
only; in the back part of which there is a groove, con¬ 
taining a pretty thick cord. The cord reaches the whole 
length, and is fattened very drongly at each end. This 
contrivance is found very lerviceabie in adiding the drength 
of the bow, and acts in fome meafure as a fpring. T he 
Elkimaux, borderingon Hudfon's Bay, make ufe of a bow 
aCting on the fame principle as that of Otaheite. The 
wood part is about four feet, or four and a half, in length, 
about three quarters of an inch in thicknefs, and two or 
three inches in breadth, having the fame dimenfions 
throughout. At the didance of eight or nine inches from 
each end, there is an abrupt curve; and on the back of 
this indrument there are a number of drings made of the 
finews of deer, drawn tight, and fattened at the indented 
parts. Thefe drings aCt in the fame manner as the cord 
on the Otaheite bow, and encreafe the force of the pro¬ 
jecting power very much. It is the cudom of the favages 
to foak thefe bows in water before ufing, as it contracts 
the linews, and makes the indrument dronger. The curves 
are made by means of thick pieces of horn, which are fafl- 
ened to the wood on the outer fide of the bow ; the wood 
being fird cracked and prefled into an angle. And as the 
horn is in a figure fitting into this angle, and is bound 
tight, it confines the wooden part in the curves from mo¬ 
ving, when the bow is made ufe of. This Efkrmaux wea¬ 
pon is a very extraordinary fpecies of the bow, and unlike 
all others. In Lapland, it is faid by Scheffer, the bows 
are compofed of two pieces fixed together with glue, one 
of which is of birch, and the other of fir-tree; which, he 
fays, on account of the refin it contains, is very proper for 
the making of bows. They have a cafe likewife of birch, 
in order to prevent injuries from rain or fnow. The Lap r 
landers, in joining the two parts of their bows, ufe a pe¬ 
culiar kind of glue, prepared from the fkins of fifh, which 
is poffefled of an uncommon degree of drength. 
Metallic bows, of diver, gold, and brafs, are mentioned 
by diderent authors; but it is probable thefe were only 
metaphorical, or ornamental, as they could not be made to 
anfvver the purpofe of (hooting, in any tolerable degree. 
Bows of deel are indeed mentioned injobxx. 24. The bow 
of Jleclfall frike him through ; but we are ignorant how 
they fadiioned them. Bows of deel tempered by fkilful 
workmen have been tried in England, but it appears that 
the eladicity of metal is far more flow and fluggidi than 
that of wood ; and, unlefs the bow is made drong, it has 
but little projectile efteCt. Metallic bows alfo are of much 
greater weight than others of the fame power. The mo¬ 
dern bows ufed in England are made of feveral kinds of 
wood. Yew has been by far the longed in ufe, but it is 
not fo much edeemed at prefent as fome other kinds. The 
foreign woods, imported ip to this country for the purpofe 
of dying and cabinet-making, are fome of them very pro¬ 
per for bows, fuch as futtic, rofe-wood, cocoa-tree, &c. 
The modern bows are condruCted of two pieces, a body 
part, generally of eladic, often of brittle, wood, and a thin 
drip of afli, elm, or ickery, which is firmly fixed on the 
back of the other. This back not only prevents the body 
from 
