The Turk, as was the custom of Orientals, shot his arrow from the right-hand side of his bow, as shown in fig. 8, p. 11.¹

The bow is here represented as fully bent, the point of the arrow being drawn back along the groove of the horn for a couple of inches within the bow.

The horn is attached to the thumb by a small leathern collar.

A short plaited cord of soft silk is suspended from the fore-end of the horn and is gripped between the fingers of the archer as he holds the bow.

This cord enables the archer to keep the horn in a level position on his hand. It is fixed to a small strip of leather which is glued beneath the horn.

The horn is usually of tortoiseshell, very highly polished. It is from 5 to 6 in. long, 1 in. wide, 1/4 in. deep inside and  1/16  in. thick.

It is slightly sloped from its centre of length to each of its ends, so that when the arrow is projected it touches the hard and smooth surface of the horn very lightly, and with, therefore, the least possible friction to retard its flight.

As the horn groove is only one-sixteenth of an inch thick, the arrow, as it is drawn back or shot forward, may be said to fit close against the side of the bow.

The Turk pulled his bow-string with a ring of ivory, or of other hard material, fitted on his right thumb. (Fig 9, p. 13.) Its manipulation is shown on p. 14.

It might be supposed that the strain of the bow-string on the ivory ring would cause the edges of the latter to injure the flesh and sinews of the thumb; this is not, however, the case in the least.

I find I can bend a strong bow much easier, and draw it a great deal farther, with the Turkish thumb-ring than I can with the ordinary European finger-grip.

The release to the bow-string which is bestowed by the small and smooth point [in Turkish " lip "] of the thumb-ring, is as quick and clean as the snap of a gunlock when a trigger is pulled, and very different in feeling and effect from the comparatively slow and dragging action that occurs when the release takes place in the European way from the leather-covered tips of three fingers.

¹ To discharge the arrow from the left-hand side of the bow, as is the custom in all European archery, the leather ring and the grooved horn will have to be fitted to the first joint of the forefinger.