Note 24 — THE TECHNICAL CULTURE OF THE ANDAMAN ISLANDERS

It is not possible, owing to lack of sufficient information, to determine exactly the types of bow used by the Semang. The following notes are based on only six specimens, two of which are in the Museum of Ethnology at Cambridge24, while the others are in the British Museum. Four of the specimens are sufficiently similar to one another to be regarded as belonging to one type, which seems to be the usual type of Semang bow. In length they are 165, 174·5, 182 and 197·5 cm., and at the middle they vary in breadth between 2·5 and 3 cm. Three are of palm-wood, and the other is of a light-coloured but tough kind of wood. The shape of the section in the middle of the bow varies considerably in the different specimens, as shown in Fig. 15. There is some uncertainty as to which is the inside, and which is the outside of the bow. At each end there is a shoulder, the point or tip at one end being in every instance considerably longer than the other. The string in each case is a three-ply rope, having a spliced eye at one end and being fastened to the bow with a knot at the other end.