The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c11.s1.17

c11.s1.17

The Bhīls held the bow by the foot, drawing the string (*chillah*) with the hand, and shooting so strongly that their arrows could penetrate an elephants’ hide. W. Egerton, 75, quoting Tod’s “Rajpoot Tribes” (a reference which I have failed in verifying) says the principal weapon of the Bhīls was the *kamptī* or bambū bow, with a string made of a thin strip of the elastic bark of the bambu. In their quiver were sixty barbed arrows each a yard long, those intended for striking fish having heads which came off the shaft on striking the fish. A long line connected this head and the shaft, so that the shaft remained on the water by way of a float.