_THE METHOD OF STRINGING A TURKISH, PERSIAN OR INDIAN BOW._
In these days no person I have ever heard of can string a strong
Turkish bow--diminutive as this weapon is--without much personal
assistance, or else by mechanical means, yet formerly the Turkish
archer unaided could do so with ease.
This he achieved by a combination of leg and manual power. (Figs. 6 and
7, p. 110.)
With the longer reflex bows, the Chinese for instance, this operation
is comparatively easy, as the hand can reach one end of the bow and
draw it inwards for the loop of the bow-string to be slipped into the
nock.
The Turkish bow, being so short, necessitates a great effort of
strength on the part of the archer to bend it between his legs and,
at the same time, stoop down to fit the bow-string. From constant
practice, the Turk of former days knew exactly how and when to apply
the muscular force of leg and arm necessary to string his bow--a
performance that no modern archer could accomplish with a bow of any
strength.
Leg and manual force combined is the only possible method of stringing
a strong reflex bow, unless mechanical power is utilised: it was the
hereditary custom of the Orientals. In the operation, there is always
the risk of twisting the limbs of the bow, from a lack of the great
strength of wrist required to hold them straight during the stringing.
If the limbs of the bow are given the slightest lateral twist as they
are being bent, the horn parts are certain to splinter, and the bow is
then useless and damaged beyond repair.[45]
[Page 110]
[45] The only safe method for a modern archer to adopt in
order to string a powerful reflex bow is to use strong
upright pegs, the size of tent pegs, inserted in smooth
ground or in holes in a board, the bow resting during the
process flat along the ground or board. Insert one peg
against the inner face of the handle of the bow and then
pull the ends of the bow back by degrees, placing a peg
behind each of its ends as you do so to retain them in
their acquired positions. The outer pegs can be shifted
towards you as the bow is gradually bent, first at its
one end and then at its other one. Finally, when the bow
is fully bent, the bow-string can be fitted across it
from nock to nock and the pegs removed. To unstring the
bow, grasp its extremities and, with the palms of the
hands uppermost, bend it slightly across the knee, at the
same time shifting with the thumb one of the loops of the
bow-string out of its nock.
The difficulty of reversing and stringing a very stiff bow with such
a reflex curve that its ends nearly meet before it is bent may be
imagined.
De Busbecq tells us that some of the Turkish bows were so strong that
if a coin was placed under the bow-string at one end of the bow, as
it was being strung, no one but a trained archer could bend the bow
sufficiently to set free the coin so that it fell to the ground.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.]
Fig. 6 shows an Oriental reflex bow being gradually reversed
preparatory to fitting on its bow-string.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.]
Fig. 7 shows a similar bow when reversed sufficiently to fit its
bow-string.
Though this illustration is from an ancient Greek vase, it will be
noticed that in it the power of the leg and arm is applied in precisely
the same way as in the more modern example given.
[Page 111]