BIRD-BOLTS. 
163 
“ bolts,” or “ quarrels ” as they were sometimes called, 
which were shot from the cross-bow, or “ stone-bow,” 
Twelfth Night (Act ii. Sc. 5). The latter was simply a 
cross-bow made for propelling stones or bullets, in con¬ 
tradistinction to a bow that shot arrows. Sir John 
Bramston, in his Autobiography (p. 108) says:—“Litle 
more than a yeare after I maried, I and my wife being 
at Skreenes with my father (the plague being soe in 
London, and my building not finished), I had exercised 
myself with a stone-bow , and a spar-hawke at the bush.” 
There were two denominations of cross-bows—latches 
and prodds. The former were the military weapons, and 
were bent with one or both feet, by putting them into a 
kind of stirrup at the extremity, and then drawing the 
cord upward with the hands ; the latter were chiefly used 
for sporting purposes. They were bent with the hand, by 
means of a small steel lever, called the goat’s-foot, on 
account of its being forked or cloven on the side that 
rested on the cross-bow and the cord. The bow itself was 
usually made of steel, though sometimes of wood or 
horn.*' 
The missiles discharged from them were not only 
arrows, which were shorter and stouter than those of 
the long-bow, but also bolts {polzen, German ; quarreaux, 
or carrieaux , French ; qnadrelli, Latin, corrupted into 
* Sir S. D. Scott, “The British Army : its Origin, Progress, and Equipment,” 
vol. ii. pp. 80, 81. 
