FOREST AND STREAM 
857 
Rambling Recollections of a Roving Robinhood 
Wherein the Writer tells of Archery as Practiced all over the World 
By A. R. Clark. 
Negritos Archer of the Philippines. 
Photo by A. R. Clark. 
D URING the past ten years it has been my 
good (or ill) fortune to wander in self- 
imposed exile over most of the earth’s sur¬ 
face in search of adventure and gain, and the 
years have brought many interesting and varied 
experiences—tiger hunting in South Indian jun¬ 
gles, studying jiu jitsu wrestling in Japan, tramp¬ 
ing through the beautiful Black Forest of Ger¬ 
many, house-boating on the Grand Canal of 
China, mountain climbing in the Philippine Isl¬ 
ands, British Columbia and Switzerland, and 
viewing the wonderful picture paintings on 
Egypt’s ancient monuments—and it has all been 
good to see and delightful to remember. Several 
experiences have been of particular interest to 
an archer. 
In Japan, if an archer keeps his eyes open, he 
will see in every city here and there a little arch¬ 
ery target hanging over a shop door as a sign of 
a bowmaker’s shop and range, or of an archery 
club. In Tokyo I enjoyed a shoot in such a place. 
And while wandering among the great trees 
around a picturesque hillside temple in Nagasaki 
I came upon a quaint little house in which lived 
a quaint old bowmaker and his daughter, and his 
house was the rendezvous of a little remnant of 
true Japanese bowmen who still love the “sport 
of kings.” I could not speak Japanese, but the 
sign language of archery is understood by its 
devotees in every nation, and I spent a few pleas¬ 
ant hours there examining the varied accoutre¬ 
ments, including whistling arrows. A half dozen 
archers gathered, and we had some enjoyable 
shooting. 
The range was about twenty-five yards, with 
the targets against an earth butt in the hillside, 
both targets and shooting-stand being under roof 
to permit of shooting on the many drizzly days. 
The targets were made by covering a hoop with 
paper. One was six inches in diameter; another 
for less skillful archers was two feet. The bows 
were of bamboo, seven feet long, and pulling only 
fifteen or twenty pounds. The arrows were of 
reed and well. The shooter slips his kimono 
off his right shoulder, puts his arrow on the 
wrong side of the bow, pulls with his thumb only 
while holding the arrow on with the first finger, 
and pulls far back to his ear to get the most 
power out of the weak bow. He also usually 
holds one or two reserve arrows in the bow hand 
while shooting. I tried shooting with the arrow 
placed in their fashion on the outside or right- 
hand side of the bow, but I had to aim ten feet 
to the left of the target, so I told them I would 
try American fashion with the arrow on the in¬ 
side of the bow, pulling the string with the fin¬ 
gers, and I was soon able to do nearly as well as 
I would in America, which was better than the 
other archers, except the old bowmaker, and I 
was encouraged by loud shouts of “Banzai!” as 
they were surprised I could do so well. The 
bowmaker was a very good shot, generally put¬ 
ting about five out of six arrows in the small 
six-inch target. 
In Peking missionary friends told me that up 
to twenty years ago the city police were armed 
with the short and powerful Tartar bows. My 
limited time did not permit me to search for arch¬ 
ers there, though I am told that they still do some 
shooting. 
In the Philippine Islands 1 secured an inter¬ 
esting collection of bows and arrows. The Ne¬ 
gritos of the Philippines are forest dwelling 
dwarfs of unknown origin, having kinky hair and 
being almost identical with the pygmies of Cen¬ 
tral Africa. They hunt with bows and use poi¬ 
soned arrows, as do also some of the tribes in the 
northern mountains. They use an interesting 
arrow with a detachable head for deer, wild pig, 
etc. It has a barbed steel or burnt wood head 
fitted closely on the arrow, with a foot or more 
of string or thong wrapped around and attached 
to the arrow a third of the way from the point. 
The motion of running causes the shaft to be 
detached from the head, which remains in the 
wound, tending to keep it open and cause bleed¬ 
ing, while the arrow trails behind on the string 
and lacerates the wound and catches in the under¬ 
brush and impedes or stops the animal’s progress. 
This arrow is also used by the aborigines of the 
Andaman Islands near India. It would be in¬ 
teresting to know where it originated and 
whether it has been invented independently by 
various tribes remote from each other. Some of 
the fish and bird arrows I secured had thin barbed 
heads ten inches long, made of wood or bamboo, 
hardened by burning. 
In India I did not see any of the native arch¬ 
ers, as the jungle in which I was hunting was un¬ 
inhabited and unexplored, and as for hunting 
tigers with a bow and arrow, it is not for me 
unless I could have a dynamite bomb on the 
arrow head and be sure of a center shot every 
time, and also have a good tree close by to climb 
in a hurry. And as for being armed with a bow 
in the presence of elephant or bison, I think I 
should pray the prayer of the Indian guide who 
was hunting elephant with an American sports¬ 
man in India. The American was a Christian 
missionary and the shikari, or guide, was also a 
devout Christian, and it was their custom to pray 
for divine protection before starting each morn¬ 
ing. One morning the hunter said to the guide 
“You are a Christian, you pray this morning,” 
and the guide’s prayer was this : “O Lord, send 
plenty elephant and bison and make master shoot 
straight, and O Lord have big tree close by.” 
On our hunt—in the mountainous jungle of 
southern India—we secured three large sambhur 
(Indian name for elk), and a red dog—similar 
to a coyote; they run in packs and hunt sys¬ 
tematically, like lions; that is, when hunting in 
a valley they post sentries across the valley and 
the pack then starts at the head of the valley and 
drives the deer down. They are very destruc¬ 
tive of game, and the government offers a large 
bounty for their scalps. We did not see any ele¬ 
phants, though there were many signs of them on 
the trails, and we failed to bag the tiger which 
we heard roaring near camp. But one of the 
party was fortunate enough to kill a black leop¬ 
ard, a rare and beautiful animal; I am told that 
they are not a distinct variety, but occur now 
and then in the litters of the ordinary spotted 
leopard. Three of us, while hunting on a 
sparsely wooded mountain-side, came upon a 
small herd of seven bison with several calves. 
They were grazing within one hundred yards 
of us and we watched them awhile, but did not 
shoot, as they were all females. We were hunt¬ 
ing in a private forest as guests of the local 
Rajah, and the government forest law against 
shooting female herbivorous animals did no 1 
apply, but the law of good sportsmanship did ap¬ 
ply, and perhaps Kipling was referring to it in his 
lines “Fair sport to all who keep the jungle 
law.” 
The Indian bison is different from, and much 
larger and heavier than, the American bison; the 
females are covered with coarse red hair, while 
the males are black. Among the game of Asia 
the bison is reckoned one of the three most 
dangerous animals, with the tiger and elephant. 
The bison is thick-skinned and hard to kill, and 
is always ready to charge without an invitation. 
Members of our party, on a similar hunt three 
months later, found a herd of over fifty bison 
and followed them all day trying to get into a 
position to shoot the bulls, of which there were 
three, without being in too much danger. Toward 
evening they were on a steep ridge over two 
hundred feet above the herd. When the beasts 
got their wind and saw them the whole herd 
charged toward them pell-mell up the steep hill 
