During the rains, the natives unstring their bows, and, bending them backwards until they curl round almost into a circle, fix them between two slips of bamboo, until the rains are over, when they re-string them: the string of this bow is of thick silk. To bring back the bow to its proper form is a difficult affair; they warm it over a charcoal fire, and bend it back by fixing two iron chains upon it; after this it is usually strung by taking one end of the bow in the left hand, passing it behind the left leg, and over the shin bone of the right, then bending it by forcing the upper end round towards the opposite side; when the string, which has been previously secured on the lower horn, is slipped into its place by the right hand.
The quiver, which is of crimson velvet, embroidered with gold, is very handsome. The arrows are steel-headed, and bound with brass rings, to render the pile more secure; the shafts are made of beautifully smooth, straight, hard reeds; the heads are either plain, or of a fish-hook shape; and the whole are highly ornamented with bareilly work.
The natives do not draw the bow with two or three fingers, as practised in Europe; they make use of a thumb-ring, of which I have seen two kinds.
Whistling arrows are reeds, on which, in lieu of a pile of steel, a hollow bit of wood is affixed, in form not unlike a small egg; when shot perpendicularly into the air they produce a shrill whistling sound. Sometimes a slip of paper is rolled up and put into the hole in the head, when the arrow is shot into a zenāna garden, over the high wall, or into a fortress.
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.