When the pressure of the forefinger is taken off the ring (by separating this finger and the thumb) the bow-string instantly pulls the lip of the ring slightly forward, and at the same moment slips off it with a sharp ‘click.’ The archers of other Oriental nations besides the Turks employed thumb-rings of various shapes and dimensions to suit the construction of their bows, bow-strings and arrows. All thumb-rings were, however, more or less similar, and were all used in the manner I have described. It is, indeed, impossible to shoot an arrow by means of a thumb-ring except as I have shown, and as a very short practical trial will prove. If the ring is applied in any other way it either flies off the hand when the bow-string is released; the thumb is injured; or the bow-string escapes from its hold when only partially drawn. * * * * * In one of the Turkish manuals on Archery translated by Baron Purgstall, many illustrations are given of the construction of the Turkish composite bow, but, unfortunately, minor details are omitted, though doubtless they were common knowledge when the Ottoman author wrote. Without these details the correct formation of the bow cannot be ascertained. The chief omissions are (1) the composition of the very strong and elastic glue with which the parts of the bow were so securely joined, (2) the treatment of the flexible sinew which formed the back of the bow--whether, for instance, it was glued on in short shredded lengths or was attached in one solid strip. All we know is that the sinew was taken from the _Ligamentum Colli_ of an ox or stag, a very powerful and elastic tendon which contracts or expands as the animal raises or lowers its head to feed or drink. When the sinew which comprises the back, or outside when it is strung, of a Turkish bow--however old it be--is dissolved in hot water, it disintegrates into hundreds of short pieces of from 2 to 3 in. long and about ⅛ in. in diameter, each as ductile as indiarubber and almost unbreakable by hand. The component parts of a Turkish bow, consisting of a thin strip of horn, one of wood and another of sinew (fig. 3, p. 106), are so pliable when separated that they can almost be coiled round the fingers, though if the same pieces are glued together they form a bow of unrivalled strength and elasticity. [Page 116] [Illustration: TARTAR, UNSTRUNG. CHINESE, UNSTRUNG. CHINESE, STRUNG. Scale: One inch = one foot. FIG. 13.] FIGS. 13, 14. THE COMPARATIVE DIMENSIONS OF THE REFLEX COMPOSITE BOWS OF VARIOUS NATIONS.--The structure of all these bows is similar in that they are composed of sinew, wood and horn, _i.e._ sinew on the back of the bow, naturally curved horn on its inner face, and a thin core of wood between the horn and sinew. [Page 117] [Illustration: PERSIAN, UNSTRUNG. PERSIAN, STRUNG.