Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/318

 N.B. First consider, ere you shoot your arrow, if your beloved can read the enclosed epistle.

Bows, and very powerful ones, in shape like those of England, are also made use of in India; they are formed of one piece of bamboo, covered with ornaments in bareilly work, and strung with catgut; I have two of these, the largest measures four feet, the smaller three feet and a half.

The bow used by the Coles is of the same shape, made of one piece of black bamboo, the string a strip of cane. The Cole places one end of the bow on the ground, kneels on his right knee, and pressing his left foot against the bow, fires in that position.

The Cole quiver is of leather, the workmanship very coarse. The arrows, most villainous weapons, are double-barbed; one of them entering the flesh must be cut out, and it would be a severe operation to extract the double-barbed head, which is of rough iron; they are often poisoned in war. The shaft is a rough reed of the commonest sort, with three bits of feather tied upon the end of it; the length of the arrow from twenty-seven to thirty-five inches; nothing can be ruder than the workmanship.

The war hatchet carried by the Coles is a fearful-looking weapon; it is used to cut down horses in action: sometimes they fix it at the end of a long bamboo, to enable them to hamstring a horse at a distance. These weapons were taken during the Cole war, and presented to me.

For further information respecting the aboriginal inhabitants of India,—the Coles, the Bheels, the Gonds, the Khonds, &c., see Appendix, No. 23.

A more particular description of the poisoned arrows, and of the bows used by the Hill-men, is inserted in another chapter.

The Pellet bow, in form like the common English bow, is strung with two catgut strings, which are confined above by a bit of wood, and below, in the centre, by a small cotton sling, which is woven in between the two strings. The pellet is placed in the sling, between the first finger and thumb of the right hand, which draws the bow, and lets fly the pellet.

At the instant the pellet is loosed, the wrist of the left hand