[2] It is stated by Sir Robert Wilson that at the battle of Alexandria the French and English threw stones at each other, during a temporary want of ammunition, with such effect that a Serjeant of the 28th Regiment was killed, and several of the men were wounded. Stones were thrown by the English Guards at the battle of Inkerman. THE BOW. ~The bow almost universal.~ This weapon under some shape or other was employed by most nations of antiquity, but not always as a warlike instrument. Scarcely any two nations made their bows exactly alike. The Scythian bow we are told, was very much curved, as are the Turkish, Persian, and Chinese bows (plate iv. figs. 1 & 2) at the present day, whilst the celebrated weapon of our ancestors when unstrung was nearly straight. It is now used among those savage tribes of Africa and America, to which fire-arms have not yet reached. ~Bows in Scripture.~ ~Bows B. C. 1892.~ ~B. C. 1760.~ ~B. C. 1058.~ ~Manner of drawing the bow.~ ~First used by Romans.~ We frequently read of the bow in Scripture, and the first passage in which the use of the bow is inferred, is in Gen. xxi. 20, where it is said of Ishmael, “And God was with the lad, and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness and became an archer.” But in the 16th verse it is said that Hagar his mother, “sat her down over against him, a good way off, as it were a _bow shot_; for she said let me not see the death of the child”:--this verse implies an earlier practice with the bow than can be adduced by any profane historian. In Gen. xxvii. 3, Isaac directs his son Esau: “Now therefore take I pray thee thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison; and make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, and that my soul may bless thee before I die.” The overthrow of Saul was particularly owing to the Philistine archers; and “David bade them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow.” The companies that came to David at Ziklag were armed with bows, and “could use the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows.” (I. Chron. xii. 2.) The bow is of very high antiquity among the Greeks, whose bows were usually made of wood, but sometimes of horn, and frequently in either case beautifully ornamented with gold and silver; the string generally made of twisted hair, but sometimes of hide. The ancient Persians drew the strings towards their ears, as is the practice still with the English. The ancient Greeks, however, drew the bowstring towards their breast, and represented the fabled Amazons as doing the same, and hence the tradition of these people cutting off their right breasts, in order to give facility for drawing the bow. Until the second Punic war, the Romans had no archers in their armies, except those who came with their auxiliary forces. Subsequently they became more employed, although as