Exhibition of Cross-Bows, Long-Bows, Quivers, &C., from the Yoruba CountryAuthor(s): Governor MoloneySource: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 19(1890), pp. 213-215Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and IrelandStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2842072 .

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GOVERNOR MOLONEY.--Exhibition of Bows from1 Yortbca. 213

Professor VICToR HORSLEY, F.R.S., exhibited and described some examples of prehistoric trephining and skull-boring from America.

His Excellency GOVERNOR MOLONEY, C.M.G., exhibited a col- lection of bows, &c., for the Yoruba country.

EXHIBITION of CRoss-Bows, LONG-BOWS, QuivERs, &c., from the YORUBA COUNTRY, by His EXCELLENcY GOVERNOR MOLONEY, C.M.G.

IN connection with his exhibits of cross and long-bows, quivers, arrows, -messenger's staffs and Dahomian ironware, His Excellency nmade the following observations:-

On his last visit to England, in 1886, he was invited by Mr. A. W. Franks, C.B., to see the Christy Collection now in the British Museum, Bloomsbury, and his attention was called to an African cross-bow on which at the time he could throw no light. VWhether it came from the Upper Nile or from West Africa he could not say; when an opportunity offered he determined to enlighten himself on the subject. The occasion presented itself when, on his reading a current issue of Yoruba proverbs by that dear and interesting old gentleman, the Right Rev. Dr. Crowther, Bishop Crowther, of the Niger, Governor Moloney came across the following:-

Akatanpd ko to ija idj, ta 1i o mu igi wd iklik oji. "A cross-bow is not enough to go to war with: whom do you

dare to face with a stick." It so happened the Governor had with him at the time some

messengers from the Chiefs of Ibadan, then stationed at their camp at Ekirun in Yoruba, some 250 and 300 miiles from the coast line, and by the light thrown' upon him through the above quoted proverb, he was able through the kind co-opera- tion of the Chiefs of Ibadan to secure the specimens exhibited. Powder and guns have replaced (more is the pity for the country and for the world) the cross-bow; it is still, however, in use among some Yoruba speaking tribes, as is the long-bow. Where such use continues, it may be concluded that middlemen or intermediate tribes prevent, in self protection or to safeguard monopoly, the import of powder and shot.

The cross and long-bows were accompanied by their leather quivers fuall of reed or cane arrows. Yoruba bows are made of various kinds of wood very suitable for the purpose, and in the case of the cross-bow, the stock of which was grooved to receive the arrow or dart, the ingenious trigger deserved much attention.

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214 GOVERNOR MOLONEY.-Exhibition of Bows fr-om Yoruba.

In the bending of the cross-bow the feet are employed, the bow being first placed thereunder. For neither weapon is the arrow feathered, and only for the long-bow is it tipped, and cleverly so in various designs with iron; in both we find notches for the receipt of the strinig, which is made of a piece of bast as removed from the tree, from twisted native fibre, or deer or buffalo skin. The cross-bow quivers were of rough hide plugged up with corn pods, while those for the long-bows were interesting and handsome specimens of the leather industry of the Mohammedan Yorubas.

The cross-bow is called in Yoruba akcatanpd, the long-bow oron or orun, the arrow for either ofa, while the quiver is named aclpo, adegunleakpo, aro, or ebiri. In Dahomey, which is con- terminous with Yoruba on its east side, the bow is dcapo, dagbo, the arrow ga, and quiver go. Some of the arrows were said to be poisoned, a practice very generally known in Africa.

As regards the messenger's staff he exhibited it as a typical qpecimen of the class of brass and ironwork it represented, and of its current stage of development in Yoruba. The former mnaterial was imported in the shape of brass rods, while the latter was manufactured in the country from native ore such as he placed before the meeting, which he obtained from Ibadan. These staffs take various fantastic and gross forms, and are of varied material. They are entrusted to confidential followers, when native authorities represented thereby communicate with each other or with the Government. They are the cartes de visite of the native authorities, the badges of authority and recognition, the venerated credentials. The respect and awe extended to these sticks is astounding. They are called okpa, and the messengers entrusted with them oloklpat.

The Dahomian axe, called in the vernacular asio, which may be viewed as essentially typical, presented a very advanced stage of ironwork, when were noticed the ingenious and useful capping and fixing of the blade as well as its exceptional polish. At ordinary times this weapon is carried suspended by its blade from the right shoulder.

DISCUSSION.

The PRESIDENT remarked tbat the use of the foot in bending the cross-bow was not peculiar to the Yoruba people: it was practised also by cross-bowmen in Europe in the middle ages.

General PITT RIVERS observed that the cross-bow exhibited by Governor Moloney, from the Yoruba Country, was exactly like that used by the Fans of the Gaboon, some of which, brought home by Du Chaillu tire in his collection at Oxford. They are

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REV. R. H. CODRINGTON.-On Poisoned Arrows in Melanesia. 215

identified together by the peculiar contrivance for releasing the string, which is unlike that of other countries. The cross-bow is also known to be used on the coast of the Bight of Benin. Its use, he thought, couild not be traced to the east coast of Africa, although Grant mentions that the children at Ukuni make toy cross-bows, which may perhaps be taken to imply that it was at one time used there. He was not aware that the cross-bow was used in India, but it was used in the Nicobar Islands, and by the Kairens, on the Martaban coast of Pegu, and in Assam; also by the Stiens of Cambodia and in Burmah. It is used in Japan and in China. The cross-bow on the west coast of Africa must therefore be either an independent invention, or be derived from European cross-bows of the middle ages.

The following Paper was read by the Author:-

On POISONED ARROWS in MELANESIA.

By the Rev. R. H. CODRINGTON, D.D.

POISONED arrows are used in the Solomon Islands, Santa Cruz, the Banks' Islands, the New Hebrides. In parts of the Solomon Islands, and in parts of the New Hebrides the common fighting weapon is the spear; but the use of the bow and poisoned arrow is occasional. In the Torres Islands, and in Lepers' Island in the New Hebrides, arrows are used for fighting which are not poisoned, yet belong entirely to the same class of weapons with those that are. When the word poisoni is used it is necessary to understand in what sense it is applied. The practice of adminis- tering poison in food was certainly common among the natives. I very much doubt, however, whether what was used had ever -more than a very little power of doing harm; whether anything used was poisonous in a proper sense of the word, before returning "labourers " from Queensland brought back arsenic with them. Certainly the deadly effect of what was administered was looked for to follow upon the power of the incantations with which the poison was prepared. In the same way the deadly quality of these arrows was never thought by the natives to be due to poison in our use of the word, though what was used might be, and was meant to be, injurious and active in inflaming the wound; it was the supernatural power that belonged to the human bone of which the head was made on which they chiefly relied, and with that the magical power of the incantations with which the head was fastened to the shaft. Hence the Torres

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