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Additional Notes on Arrow Release :C0 i Morse, Edward = CD Sylvester =oCO Additional notes on arrow release CO 6N 498 ADDITIONAL NOTES ON ARROW RELEASE By EDWARD S. MORSE PEABODY MUSEUM Salem, Massachusetts 1922 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/additionalnotesoOOmorsuoft a o ADDITIONAL NOTES ON ARROW RELEASE By EDWARD S. MORSE PEABODY MUSEUM Salem, Massachusetts 1922 printed by 113 Market St.. Lynn, Mass. v^ ^y NOV 3 - 1966 ^"SITY Of j[136B9l ADDITIONAL NOTES ON ARROW RELEASE Edward S. Morse In 1885 I published, in the Proceedings of the Essex Institute, a paper entitled "Ancient and Modern Methods of Arrow Release." From the difficulty I found in ascertaining the various attitudes of the hand in drawing the bow I began to realize that no one had made a study of the subject and that I had made a discovery. Prof. E. B. Tylor, the distinguised author of "Prehistoric Times," in acknowledg- ing the receipt of a copy of my paper, wrote me as follows: " It is won- derful how much there is to be learned by close examination into points that at first sight do not seem as if they wanted any. I had no idea till I looked at your sketches that there were systematic differences among peoples in their way of discharging their arrows."* The main facts, with their illustrations, quickly appeared in Russian, German, Dutch and French reviews and were republished in England and start- ed a number of investigators on the subject. In the Memoir, which has been out of print for some years I asked for information on the subject particularly concerning savage people, as I regarded my work as only a preliminary outline of the subject. As a result of this appeal *In the Badminton Library. Archery, C. J. Longman, Esq., says (p. 76) "In discussing methods of drawing the bow occasion will frequently arise to refer to the pamphlet by Prof. Morse, as he was the first to investigate the subject. His researches on a seemingly trivial matter have a high ethnographic interest, and his classification is so sound that it must form the basis of any further researches on the subject." I received many items and sketches from all parts of the world and now, nearly thirty-five years after, I have compiled this information and the present paper is the result. Before proceeding further I venture at this point to republish a few figures illustrating the five forms of arrow release t given in my first paper on the subject which has long been out of print. PRIMARY RELEASE Fig. 1 I found the simplest form of release was that which the children of all nations use the world over: that is in grasping the arrow with the thumb and bent forefinger. I have seen the children of Ameri- cans, Indians, Chinese, Japanese and Negroes play with a toy bow and arrow and they all invariably grasp the arrow with the thumb and bent forefinger. It was interesting to discover that some of the lower I savage races, like the Ainu, practice this release. The arrow accom- panying this release is generally knobbed at the nock end and is gashed or roughened to secure a firmer pinch on the arrow. This I termed the primary release. fThe English archer prefers the word "loore" to release. Release seems to me a better word for we release a prisoner; we speak of a loose button, a loose hinge, some- thing that is still there, like a loose tooth. SECONDARY RELEASE Fig. 2 In another and higher group of savages such as the Pueblo Ind- ians, the arrow is not only grasped by the thumb and bent fore- finger but the second and third fingers are brought to bear upon the string, thus enabling the archer to use a stronger bow. This I termed the secondary release. TERTIARY RELEASE Fig. 3 A third form of release I determined through the courtesy of Mr. Le Flesche, an educated Omaha Indian. This release con- sisted in holding the forefinger nearly straight and not bent as in the primary and secondary releases and with the tips of this finger and the tips of the second and third fingers pulling the string, the arrow being held between the tips of the thumb and forefinger. This form I termed the tertiary release and found it wide spread. From the testimony of Lieut. Vogdes, U. S. A. and Col. James Ste- phenson, this was the form of release used by the Sioux, Arapahoes, Cheyennes, Assiniboins, Comanches, Blackfeet and Navahoes and doubtless other North American tribes. C. J. Longman, Esq., in his interesting and valuable contribu- tions to the Archery volume of the Badminton Library Series, does not recognize this release and classifies it with the secondary form and says, "It seems doubtful, however whether there is sufficient distinction between the secondary and tertiary looses to justify their separation, and all finger and thumb looses, when the tips of the fin- gers assist in drawing the string will be classed here as secondary." I cannot agree with my distinguished friend, for further study shows that it is a marked North American method. A study of West Coast Indians, Mexican tribes, Surinam Indians, and even the figures in ancient Mexican codices, tracings of which I have received from that eminent scholar Mrs. Zelia Nuttall, convinces me that the tertiary release was employed by these ancient people. It is found sporadically in other parts of the world. MEDITERRANEAN RELEASE Fig. 4 The archers of Europe shooting only for sport use a release that I have named the Mediterranean release because I discovered that the Mediterranean nations — the Caucasians of Blumenbach — for nearly 2000 years have used this release.* Even the ancient relatives of this race, the Hill tribes of India, practice it. It consists in draw- ing the string with the tips of the first, second and third fingers; the thumb is inert and the Uttle finger is rarely used. Pictures and en- gravings of the 17th century and before depict the archer as using the first and second finger only. This indicates either greater strength or a lighter bow. This release, as practiced today requires either a glove or finger tips of leather to protect the ends of the fingers. MONGOLIAN RELEASE Fig. 5 The Asiatic races employ a method far removed from those forms already mentioned. The string is drawn back by the thumb tip which is sharply bent over it, while the forefinger is bent over the junction of the thumb to aid in holding it. The arrow is held in the of the forefinger and thumb. This method of release necessitates Harold H. Bender, Professor of Indo-Germanic Philology at Princeton Uni- Home of versity has lately published an extremely illuminating book, entitled "The Indo- the Indo-European." He gives good reasons for believing that the term term Caucasian of European is preferable to that of Aryan or Mediterranean. The Blumenbach is, of course, nearly obsolete. the wearing of a stout thumb-ring made of bone, horn, jade or metal, the edge of the ring engaging the string. All the Asiatic races with- out exception use this realese; the Mongols, Manchus, Tibetans, Ko- reans and Turks use this release with various forms of thumb rings, the Japanese using a glove with a grooved thumb. Even the Per- sians, who are not Mongoloid, have acquired this release from being interposed between Mongoloid people on the east and west. In attempting to make out from ancient drawings, such as those on Greek vases, the attitude of the hand in drawing the bow the great difficulty arises from the fact that in many cases the artist was not an archer, and, furthermore, so long as the bow was stretched no atten- tion was paid to the attitude of the hand in stretching it. When I began the study I was amazed at the inability of travelers to recall the method of arrow release, though they admitted they had seen the savages shoot a hundred times. I recall a striking illustration of this in the case of my friend, Frank Hamilton Gushing, who had lived among the Zuni Indians for several years. He brought to Bos- ton many years ago a number of Zuni Indians who were hospitably entertained by Mrs. Mary Hemenway at her summer home in Man- chester. I was invited to spend the day with them. I asked Mr. Gushing the method the Zuni used in shooting the arrow. He looked at me vaguely and said, "Why, I have shot with them a thou- sand times, isn't it this way?" pushing a lead pencil between the thumb and bent forefinger. I told him that was the lowest form of release and as the Zuni are Pueblo Indians I thought they must use the second- ary release, that is beside the thumb and bent forefinger on the arrow, the second and third finger assisted in drawing the string. He imme- diately constructed a bow from a stick, made a rude arrow, strung the stick and invited one of the chiefs to illustrate the Zuni method of drawing the bow. We eagerly watched the hand as he drew the string and the attitude of his fingers was precisely as I had predicted. Mr. Gushing gave me a hearty slap on the shoulder while ejaculating "Spl — endid!" Nowhere was an acute observer who had lived and shot with the Zuni and yet had failed to observe the simple atti- 6 tude of the hand in shooting.
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