The Army of the Indian Moghuls: Its Organization and Administration c11.s1.33

c11.s1.33

The left hand was placed opposite the right breast, just far enough from the body to allow clear action: the butt of the arrow was pressed to the string, the fore and middle fingers of the right hand were then drawn steadily, until the head was near the forefinger of the left hand. The bow was always held perpendicularly. Native archers rarely missed an object the size of a tea cup at sixty or seventy yards, and Captain Williamson at Lucknow repeatedly saw a man lodge an arrow in a common walking stick at that distance. The hill people of Bengal were also very expert with the bow. They would lie on their back, steadying the bow with their feet horizontally, and at a distance of two or three hundred yards send the arrow through a common water pot, not more than a foot in diameter. They could shoot kites flying, and indeed rarely missed their object.