Sir John Hayward is probably the latest writer of any note, who has given the preference of archery to mus ketry in war. The treatise of sir John Smith, concerning the choice of military weapons, written during the reign of Elizabeth, manifests, also, a strong partiality in favour of the long bow ; but when it is recollected, that, in those days, fire-arms were clumsy and unmanageable, that the muskets could not be fired without a rest, and that the awkward mode of loading and of applying matches, occupied much of the soldier's time, it will be perceived that the comparison is not in the smallest degree applicable to the fire-locks now in use. Ascham's " Toxophilus" is a sort of shootiog catechism, contain ing a vast variety of answ-rs to the sceptical queries proposed by a learned p with respect to the dignity and utility of the art I' u, disputation is con ducted somewhat after the Socr ,i.c manner, being accordingly loaded with arguments ad homin,^m, is dandy pedantic. The philologist, of course, is beaten 1')y his own weapons, and retires from the field, impress ed with a conviction of the importance of what was then called Artillerie.
An art like this, in which dexterity is requisite, can not be taught by mere precept. Nothing but long and attentive practice can ever make an archer. There are many circumstances, however, connected with the art, which the experience of former times has discovered, and which may be communicated by those who cannot pretend to any proficiency in the practice.
In judging of the degree of excellence acquired by different nations in the practice of this art, we may, in some measure, be guided by the accounts transmitted to us of the materials and construction of the imple ments employed ; also of the attitude in which the ar cher stood, and the direction in which he drew the bow.
The most ancient bows which we hear of were made of horn. The Scythian bow is universally understood to have been formed of this substance, and we know also that it was greatly incurvated. Homer's account of the bow of Pandarus, in the 4th book of the Iliad, is, that it was made of the horns of a mountain goat, joined together ; and that its length was sixteen hand-breadths, which was the length of the English long-bow. Homer's authority, indeed, must not be admitted as a picture of the times in which he lived, much less as a representa tion of the state of things in the more advanced periods of the Grecian republics. Every thing, according to him, had degenerated before he wrote ; and the puny generation, who were his contemporaries, were incapa ble of carrying the ponderous weapons which had been wielded with ease by their athletic forefathers. In later
times the Grecian bows were generally made of wood, a substance much more easily adapted for the purpose. In some ancient writers, and particularly in the book of Job and of Psalms, we read of bows of steel, or, as some would translate it, of brass. These might be un derstood to be mere poetical expressions, indicating the great strength of the weapons, in the same manner as Apollo's bow is said to have been of silver, or Diana's of gold, to denote their splendour. But we know that such bows were used, not only in remote times, but also in comparatively modern ages, particularly by the Turks. As it is impossible to make such bows at the same time flexible and strong, we cannot conceive them to have been very serviceable. The Ethiopians are said to have made their bows of palm tree, four cubits in length. The Indians, according to Herodotus and Arrian, made theirs of reed, and, when unbent, their bows were never shorter than the men who used them. The Lycians had bows made of a very hard wood, of the genus cornus, probably cornus sanguinea, which is very smooth, and susceptible of a fine polish. This wood was also the most highly approved of for the making of arrows, javelins, and all sort of missile weapons ; and hence it was called bellis accommoda comas. It is doubtful whether Ovid alludes to it or to horn, when he says of the nymph Syrinx, corneus huic arcus. Of all the kinds of wood, however, the taxus baccata, or yew, is incomparably the best for this purpose.
The Laplanders are said to display great ingenuity in the formation of their bows. They flatten two pieces of hard wood, and join them together by a glue of the most powerful tenacity, extracted, it is said, from the skin of the perch. The North American Indians, in a simi lar manner, construct their bows of three several pieces, which they strengthen with the sinews of their deer, wrapped hard round the thickest part of their bow.
Arrows, in ancient times, were very generally made of reeds. According to Arrian, they were about three cubits, or a yard and a half long, and when discharged from the strong bows of the same material already re ferred to, which were bent with the feet, could not be repelled by the best armour in the world. This account is confirmed by Strabo ; but Quintus Curtius, who re presents the Indian arrows as not more than two cubits long, speaks of their effects as inconsiderable, and as cribes their inefficacy to their weight.