The Long and Short of Bows and the Sacredness of Arrow

            Most of us have learned to shoot a bow as we would a gun–by looking down the arrow and aligning it with the target. This is a Civilized shooting method brought to us via the English longbow tradition. It evolved in open field conditions with distant and stationary or slow-moving targets (largely warfare).

            The longbow style works for hunting if we approach the bow as we would a gun. Yet it limits our hunting style and thus our effectiveness. Let me illustrate: Imagine that you’re Wyatt Earp and you’re walking down the main street of Laredo for a faceoff with Bad Breath McCoy the bank robber. You get close enough to see the hate in his eyes and you stop. And he stops. There’s so much tension in the air that even the sparrows stop chirping.

            You size each other up. He stands there nonchalantly, as though he were out for a morning stroll. He looks around, lazily chewing on the grass stem hanging from the corner of his mouth.

            Then, in a instant, he transforms into a tightly wound spring. He rivets his stance, bent slighty at the knee, while at the same time his left hand flashes for his sideshooter. Your rifle is under one arm and your pistol is slung on the opposite hip; which will it be?

            In our scenario the longbow is analogous to our rifle; it is aimed by sighting down the barrel to align with the target. Length of barrel is needed for accuracy; time and steadiness are needed to pull off an accurate shot.

            In both design and shooting technique our six-shooter is similar to the Native shortbow; it is shot quickly and “off the hip”, relying on instinct and the communion of bow and bowyer born of endless practice. Focus remains on the target; the weapon is never looked at. The weapon itself is designed to be minimal and fast – nothing to get in the way of its intended purpose.

            Why then, are we longbow rather than shortbow hunters? Because of our city lives, we no longer know the ways of the animals and the skills of the stalk, and the gun has made us lazy hunters. Like the rifle, the longbow is good for distant shots, we camouflage ourselves in and wait for a chance at a shot-usually a long one.

            The Native hunter often knows his animal – his habits, his daily routine, his weaknesses. He lies in wait beside the trail and takes a quick shot. Or the quarry may be a Buffalo from horseback or a just-flushed wild boar or a jungle hen. Whatever the animal, it is usually near and the shot often needs to be executed rapidly.

            To return to the shortbow hunt we first need to rethink our relationship to the bow. And the arrow. Generally speaking, the longbow was developed for hunting people and the shortbow for hunting animals. Along with quickness, the shortbow is easy to handle in undercover and on horseback. (For further information on the bow itself consult the references listed at the end of this article.)

            The arrow is the heart and essence of the bow-and-arrow; the bow is merely the conveyance. In actuality the arrow is a spear, and the bow (like the at-latl which preceded it) is a spear-thrower – an extension of the arm. This concept is important because when we shoot instinctively we forget about the bow; we know it so well that it is if it were a part of our arm. We become the arrow.

            When a Native hunter shoots he is enacting a sacrament. He has asked the spirit of the animal clan if she would give one of her own to feed the Human people, and he has given her an offering and perhaps agreed to be the guardian of her clan or give honor in some other way. So when the arrow comes, the animal welcomes it; he will jump into it. The hunter’s arrow is his spirit reaching to join the spirit of the animal.

            When the hunter shoots his spirit reaches out to join with the spirit of the animal; the arrow merely follows that path.

How can this be? It is a matter of attunement–a matter of spiritual perspective.