🚀 go-pugleaf

Unto all the Gentles here assembled, Greetings from Pagan!

I'm not sure what it's worth, but browsing through Mary G. Houston's _Ancient 
Greek, Roman and Byzantine Costume and Decoration_  (London:  Adam and 
Charles Black, first published 1931) I found a drawing on page 75 which is 
described thus:

    This is from the decoration in relief of an Electrum vase by a 
    Greek artist of the fourth century B.C.  It represents a Scythian 
    warrior -- a bowman....  He carries a second bow in the quiver, 
    which is slung on to his body.  The original is now in the Historical 
    Museum at Moscow, it was found in a grave in South Russia. 

The bows depicted have the strongly counter-curved ends and bowed belly 
(sorry, I've forgotten the archery terms) which I associate with recurves.  
The bowman is shown squatting with one leg forward, stringing the bow by 
flexing it between (at the strung end) the thigh of the bent leg, (in the 
middle) under the knee of his extended leg, and (at the being-strung end) a 
hand, while the other hand carries the free end of the bowstring.  Hard to 
describe, easy to do:  *if* you have a small recurve -- the bowstring might 
be an arm's length from end to end.  All the recurves I've seen in pre-modern 
sources have been about 2/3 the size of the modern ones I know.

Pagan le Chaunster
________________________________________________________________________ 
Jennifer Geard                         bloodthorn@sloth.equinox.gen.nz 
Christchurch, New Zealand