Note 45 — PART IV THE METHOD OF STRINGING A TURKISH, PERSIAN OR INDIAN BOW.

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.