Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-05-08
The Long Bow.

AMONG the rudest savagcs, where not
glimmer of science has ever shOne, the bow
is the one implement wrought to perfec-
ton. The wandering tribes of Africa, and
even the squalid Diggers of the Rocky
Mountains, are skiltul artisans in the man
utacture of bows and arrows. Men seem
to invent these weapons in advance of sui
ticient clothing, habitatiOns, or even a Ian
guage competent to express their ideas; or
if these latter have first been invented then
they have often been neglected and forgot
ten, while the former have been retained.
Men who live in holes in the earth, and in
state of filth and nudity that would
shame the lowest animals, are found
armed with bows and arrows, fashioned
after the best pattern, and finished with
wonderful care and skill.
Not a year ago a swan was shot by one
of a party Of gentlemen hunting on the
kankakee River in Indiana and firmly
embedded in the birds breastbone was
found long, slender, beautifully finished
arrowhead The wound had entirely
healed, and, to all appearances, the missile
had long been carried about by the bird.
This arrowhead is in the possession of Mr..
Cox, State Geologist for Indiana, who
thinks the weapon has been that of a native
Esquimaux 1t is made Of bone trimmed or
ground to exquisite proportion, and slight
ly barbed. Bone, horn and the tusks and
claws of animals, seem to have been the
principal materials used by the American
Indians for pointing their arrows, and
much wrangling has been INDUCED in by
antiquarians touching the old t1intpolnts
everywhere found in the United States. 1t
has, however, | believe, been settled by a
majority that these t1intpoints were made
and used exclusively by the mound-b build
ers, whoever they were, but on this subject
some light may be thrown by discovery
made in the year 1859, in Gordon Coun-
| ty, Georgia. | was present when negro
| felled large red-oak tree, deeply en-
| bedded in the trunk Of which was found a
| broken flint arrow-h head of beautiful work
manship, made 50 as to twist or turn spir-
| ally from barb to point. The tree could
not have been more than two hundred
wears old The flint was situated near the
| heart of the trunk, and about twenty feet
| from the root The point had been shiv-
cred by the force Of the blow as it entered
the wood, but TIE fragments had been kept
| in place by the timber-fbres.
! Among the ancients, the Romans were
inferior archers, the javelin being their
| principal HlSSlit-"cdPoli, anu lIo HItcho
were even behind the Romans. The Thra-
clans, Cretans, Parthians, and Numidians,
| seem to have been excellent archcrs, and
Xenophon testifies to the wonderful skill
of the Carduchians.
But the archers of "merrie Englande -
took the palm from all their predecessors
and contemporaries. The Norman-Saxon
longbow and arrows, and the stalwart men
who handled them, carried CONSERVATION
throughout Europe and Asia. The fame
Of England at one time rested on her
archers. The glory Of the Plantagenets
owed much to the effect of six-foot bows
and cloth yard arrows. The battles OF
Cressy, Agincourt, Rovernay, and dreadful
Poitiers, and hundred other great fights
have their histories written with the
bloody points of the unerring missiles Of
the island archers.