|
Oriental Bows - The Thumb
Ring
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 Thumb-Ring
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. |
