PART III
THE ARROW
Length of arrow, 25½ in. to 25¾ in.
Weight of arrow, avoirdupois, 7 drs., or equal to the weight of two shillings and a sixpence.
The balance of the arrow is at 12 in. from the end of its nock.
Shape of arrow, ‘barrelled,’ and much tapered from its balancing-point to its ends: its sharp ivory point being only ⅛ in. in diameter (where it is fitted to the shaft) and ¼ in. in length. The part of the shaft to which the feathers are attached is 3/16 in. in diameter, and the centre of the shaft 5/16 in.
Though I have carefully measured and weighed about two hundred eighteenth-century Turkish flight arrows, I have scarce found a half-dozen that were ⅛ in. more or less than from 25½ in. to 25¾ in. in length, or that varied by even as little as ½ dr. from 7 dr. in weight. In regard to their balancing-point these arrows are equally exact, as this part is invariably from 11½ in. to 12½ in. from the nock.
It is evident that the old Turkish flight arrow was accurately made to a standard pattern that experience showed was the most successful one for long-distance shooting.
The light and elegantly shaped wooden nock of an old Turkish arrow ([fig. 5]) is quite unlike the clumsy horn nock of the modern European one.
The latter cannot withstand the recoil of the Turkish bow and soon splits apart, though in the thousands of times I have discharged Turkish arrows I have never known one to split at the nock.
It will be noticed that the shape of the Turkish nock—with its narrow entrance that springs apart to admit the bow-string and then closes again—enabled an archer, even on horseback, to carry an arrow ready for use on the string of his bow.