And in his hand he bare a mighty bowe.”
Prol. to Cant. Tales.
In order to show the dandyism displayed by the archers of former times, it may be stated, that, in the wardrobe accounts of the 28 Edw. I. p. 359, is a charge for verdigrise to stain the feathers of the arrows green. A wardrobe account of the 4 Edw. II. furnishes an entry for peacock arrows, “Pro duodecim flecchiis cum pennis de pavone, emptis pro rege de 12 den.”
As this note has some connexion with the shuttlecock,[[84]] as well as the arrow, we may take this opportunity of introducing a passage, which was accidentally omitted in the text; it refers to the method of playing this game at Turon, in Cochin China; and which is described by a traveller as follows:--“Instead of using a battledoor,[[85]] as is the custom in England, the players stood seven or eight in a circle; and after running a short race, and springing from the floor, they met the descending shuttlecock with the sole of the foot, and drove it up again with force high in the air. The game was kept up with much animation, and seldom did the players miss their stroke, or give it a wrong direction. The shuttlecock was made of a piece of dried skin rolled round, and bound with strings. Into this skin were inserted three feathers, spreading out at top, but so near to each other, where they were stuck into the skin, as to pass through the holes, little more than a quarter of an inch square, which were always made in the centre of Cochin copper coins. We made one or two awkward attempts at the game, not only to our own confusion, but much to the amusement of the natives. It must, however, be remembered, that, amongst these ingenious people, the feet assist, as auxiliaries to the hands, in the exercise of many trades, particularly that of boat-building.”
[84]. Shuttlecock, more correctly, perhaps, shuttle-cork, although Skinner thinks it is called a cock from its feathers.
[85]. So called from door, taken for a flat board; and battle, for striking, i. e. a striking-board.
Note 44, p. [270].--Sound conveyed by solid bodies.
A beautiful experiment was lately instituted at Paris, to illustrate this fact, by Biot. At the extremity of a cylindrical tube, upwards of 3000 feet in length, a ring of metal was placed, of the same diameter as the aperture of the tube; and in the centre of this ring, in the mouth of the tube, was suspended a clock-bell and hammer. The hammer was made to strike the ring and the bell at the same instant, so that the sound of the ring would be transmitted to the remote end of the tube through the conducting power of the matter of the tube itself; while the sound of the bell would be transmitted through the medium of the air included within the tube. The ear being then placed at the remote end of the tube, the sound of the ring, transmitted by the metal of the tube, was first distinctly heard; and, after a short interval had elapsed, the sound of the bell, transmitted by the air in the tube, was heard. The result of several experiments was, that the metal of the tube conducted the sound with about ten and a half times the velocity with which it was conducted by the air; that is, at the rate of about 11,865 feet per second.