The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c11.s1.20

c11.s1.20

Arrows. The arrow (*tīr*) is given at N°. 15 of the list in the *Āīn* i, 110, and it is shown as fig. 14*a* on plate xii. Another name, *sihām* is found in the *Mirāt-i-Aḥmadī*, fol. 178*a*; it is the plural of *sahm*, an arrow, Steingass, 710; see also Lane, “Lexicon,” 1454, *sahamahu*, iii. Captain Williamson, “Oriental Field Sports,” 87, says that in Bengal there were two kinds of arrow shafts, the common kind made of reeds, and those used against tigers, made of wood. To the first kind the heads were attached by resin; in the second kind, a hole was bored and the head while red-hot was forced into it. Some arrows in the India Museum are 2 feet 4 inches long (Egerton 130, N°. 604). One as long as 6 feet, obtained at Lakhnau in 1857, must have been used with a large bow. The names of the parts of an arrow were for the shaft¹ P. *kilk*, lit. reed, Hindī, *sāri* (Shakes. 1285, also the name of a kind of reed); for the head, P. *paikān*, H. *bhāl*; for the feathers, P. *par*. The feathers were frequently black and white mixed (*ablaq*). Ordinarily the head was of steel, but the Bhīls used arrow-heads of bone.