Chapter XVI: Javelin and Arrow Heads (3)

For harpoons there is often a hole in the triangular armature. One of these points was found in the body of a seal killed in Iceland[1964] in 1643, and Olaf Worm judiciously thought that the seal had been wounded by a Greenlander.

In most countries the shafts are feathered at the bow-string end, and such was the case in the earliest historical times. Hesiod[1965] describes the arrows of Hercules as feathered from the wings of a black eagle, and Homer[1966] speaks of the πτερόεντες ὀϊστοί—if indeed, as Mr. Yates suggests, this latter refers to the plumes.[1967] Herodotus,[1968] however, mentions, as a remarkable fact, that the arrows of the Lycians in the army of Xerxes, like those of the Bushmen and some other savages of the present day, had no |411| feathers, so that this addition to the shaft was not indispensable. It is said that some North American arrow-heads are “bevelled[1969] off on the reverse sides, apparently to give them a revolving motion,” so as to answer the same purpose as plumes. But this result seems very doubtful.

From what kind of wood the bows in Britain were made at the time when flint-pointed arrows were in use is uncertain; the yew, however, which is probably the best European wood for the purpose, is indigenous to this country. It is not probable that the cross-bow was known in these early times, though it was in use during the Roman period, as may be seen on a monument in the museum at Le Puy.

I need, however, hardly enter into further details with regard to arrows, and I therefore proceed to the consideration of other forms of stone implements, including those by which it seems probable that some of the arrow-heads were fashioned.

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