Bows and Arrows

By Saxton T. Pope

This deluxe unabridged reprint Legacy Edition of Saxton Pope’s historic A Study Of Bows And Arrows is the ultimate analysis of ancient archery equipment. Originally published in 1923, this vintage classic book is an essential text for the study of traditional hunting and shooting sports lore. Drawing from his experience with American Indians and making his own bows and arrows, Pope examines the ancient bow and shooting methods with meticulous detail and extensive testing. In this book, he examines long bows, recurve bows, short bows, and everything in between. With many illustrations and photograph plates, this study examines the effects of each kind of bow and shares these results with readers in an engaging way. Pope’s study of bows and arrows throughout history is unparalleled. Drawing on his time with the Yana Indians and having published at least three books on archery, this present book focuses on the specific composition of bows and arrows and how well each works. He also provides specifics on how to make your own bows, including discussions on the best types of wood. Arrow making is also included, with detailed instructions on wood, feathers, bindings, and arrowheads. This vintage book includes timeless knowledge archery topics. It makes a perfect gift for archery enthusiasts and hunters, young and old! This is the classic manual of archery, preserved for almost a century! It also makes a great gift for outsoorspeople, bushcrafters, survivalists, campers, and scouts. Although this book represents thought from a former time, it also reveals much about the rich history of archery, and many of the tips, tricks, and discussions are still relevant for study today!

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1962.
This deluxe unabridged reprint Legacy Edition of Saxton Pope’s historic A Study Of Bows And Arrows is the ultimate analysis of ancient archery equipment. Originally published in 1923, this vintage classic book is an essential text for the study of traditi

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Release date: Dec 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9780520330900

Saxton T. Pope

Enter the Author Bio(s) here.

Book preview

BOWS AND ARROWS

BOWS AND ARROWS

BY SAXTON T. POPE

Foreword by Robert F. Heizer

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley and Los Angeles 1962

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

London, England

Originally published in 1923 as A Study of Bows and Arrows, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Volume 13, Number 9; second edition, revised, 1930

Third printing, 1962

(First Paper-bound Trade Edition)

Printed in the United States of America

FOREWORD

The author of this book on bows and arrows, Saxton T. Pope, was instructor in surgery and research at the medical school, University of California, when Ishi, the last of the Yahi tribe, was brought to San Francisco in 1911.AUTO See Theodora Kroeber, Ishi in Two Worlds. University of California Press, 1961. Pope and Ishi became friends, and through this acquaintance Pope developed a strong interest in archery.AUTO Saxton T. Pope, Yahi Archery, University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 103-152, 1918. These are cited by T. Kroeber (fn. 1), pp. 250-251. In addition see The Bow of Yew, Forest and Stream, Feb. 1917, pp. 56, 88. See also E. B. Weston, Ishi the Archer, Forest and Stream, Feb. 22, 1913, Vol. 81, pp. 658-659. Pope began to practice with the bow under Ishi’s guidance in 1912, and six years later published a detailed monograph on Yahi archery to which the reader is referred.AUTO Pope published several articles on aspects of Ishi’s archery. Going beyond his academic anthropological-technological interest in Ishi’s archery, Pope wrote a large book, Hunting with the Bow and Arrow (San Francisco, 1923), which tells of his experiences in hunting big game. The present book is a factual account, and the reader will detect in it only the barest intimation of the tremendous love and enthusiasm which Pope developed for the practice of archery. Ishi, between 1911, when he came to San Francisco, and 1916, when he died, learned the culture facts of our civilization, but before his death he also communicated a great deal about his aboriginal ways of life—among these, and to Pope, his knowledge of the bow and arrow and its employment.

This book is primarily a report on experiments using museum specimens. From this kind of information we may learn something about the mechanics of the bow and the efficiency of the arrow which is cast by that weapon.AUTO For a review of the experimental method in primitive technology see Robert Ascher, Experimental Archaeology, American Anthropologist, Vol. 63, pp. 793-816,1961. In any attempt to understand the pursuits of war and the chase among prehistoricAUTO The invention and antiquity of the bow are not known. For a discussion see A. L. Kroeber, Anthropology (Harcourt, Brace, 1948), pp. 356, 669-670. See also O. F. A. Menghin, La Antigüedad del Arco de la Flecha, Rev. Geogr. Americana, 2a epoca, Vol. 36, No. 218-219, pp. 205-210, 1953. or aboriginal peoples, it is essential that we know how the weapon works and what can be done with it. Pope’s present book gives us more of this information than any other source.AUTO For a review of types of bows and arrows in North America and eastern Asia see Spencer L. Rogers, The Aboriginal Bow and Arrow of North America and Eastern Asia, American Anthropologist, Vol. 42, pp. 255-269, 1940.

The reader will find this book an enlightening one. The sinew backing on the bow, for example, serves the purpose of allowing the wooden stave to be fully drawn without breaking and is not, as one might guess, a feature whose purpose is to increase the cast of the bow (p. 39) / It is also interesting to learn (p. 5) that the best aboriginal flight arrows that Pope ever found in his tests were those made by Ishi. The superior penetrating power in animal tissue of obsidian (p. 56), the material from which most California Indians made their arrowpoints, is likewise a matter of interest.

The general inferiority of the American Indian bow as compared to the modern hunting or target-shooting bow was compensated for by the ability of Indians to approach within short distances of their live target. At distances of thirty to forty yards the California Indian was a highly effective marksman.AUTO For a study of sinew-backed bows collected in California by eighteenth-century explorers see Eugene Robinson, "Vancouver’s Californian Bows/’ University of California Archaeological Survey, Report No. 28, pp. 1-5, Berkeley, 1955. AUTO Ishi’s scores in target shooting and his accuracy at hitting small game are detailed in Pope’s Yahi Archery (cited in fn. 2). Loeffelholz, in 1851, wrote of the Trinidad Bay Yurok tribe in northwestern California: I once witnessed them strike a tencent piece at a distance of twenty paces, six times out of ten (R. F. Heizer and J. E. Mills, The Four Ages of Tsurai, University of California Press, p. 125). Wilkes, commander of the United States Exploring Expedition, observed in 1841 that a Shasta Indian boy hit a button set up at twenty paces three times out of five: They obtained an exhibition of the archery of the [Shasta] Indians by putting up a button at twenty yards distance, which one of them hit three times out of five; the successful marksman was rewarded with it and a small piece of tobacco. They use these bows with such dexterity as to kill fish, and lanch [stc] their arrows with such force, that one of the gentlemen remarks he would as leave be shot at with a musket at the distance of one hundred yards, as by one of these Indians with his bow and arrow. (Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition during the Years 1838,1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, Vol. 5, p. 239, Lea and Blanchard, 1845.) Ishi’s shortrange accuracy was not a serious handicap in killing small game because of his ability to call game. Pope wrote in 1917:

"Ishi could call small game to him and shoot it at convenient distances. I did not believe him when he told me this. But upon one of our hunts he demonstrated his ability. Selecting suitable ground and hiding behind a bush, he placed two fingers to his lips and by a strong kissing action, produced a series of squeaks resembling the cry of a rabbit in distress.

"Within a minute a jack rabbit ran out of the brush ninety yards distant and alternately listening and advancing, came within ten yards. At the same moment a wildcat emerged from the woods and cautiously approached within sixty yards, where he sat on a log and let us discharge five arrows at him, not moving till the last grazed him between the ears.

"Twelve times during the day Ishi repeated this performance, and upon five occasions animals came to his call. Rabbits, tree squirels, coyotes, wildcats and bears all responded to it. The first two came to offer aid to the supposedly injured victim, while the predatory animals wished to share in the feast/’

Berkeley

March 12,1962

Robert F. Heizer

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS

BOWS

ARROWS

CONCLUSIONS

EXPLANATION OF PLATES

PLATES

INTRODUCTION

A contest of strength between peoples will always interest human beings; rivalry in the arms and implements of war is one of the fascinations of national competition. It is therefore a matter of