The most striking example of the identification of the bow and arrow with offspring, I think we may assume originally male offspring, is furnished by the Todas of the Nilgheri hills. These people have a ceremony called pursütpimi (literally, "bow and arrow we touch"), in which a man gives a bow and arrow to a pregnant woman; it is this man who for all social purposes is the father of the child, being regarded as the father even if he has had nothing to do with the woman before. It will be remembered that the Todas are not only polyandrous but are extremely free in sexual matters.

The pursütpimi ceremony takes place about the seventh month of pregnancy, and begins in the evening before the new moon. It is described by Rivers as follows:

This ceremony must take place during a woman’s first pregnancy; in succeeding pregnancies only when it is desired to alter the fatherhood of the child. We can scarcely doubt that the child is symbolized by the bow and arrow. Another example is offered by the Coorg of Southern India:

At the present day an essentially similar ceremony is performed among the Khasi of Assam. Near a newly born child are placed certain implements, which differ according to its sex: a bow and three arrows if the child is a boy; if a girl, a chopper and a cane head-strap for carrying burdens. [4]

Professor Karlgren further cites from the Li Ki the procedure when an heir to the throne is born --

I cannot discover how long this ceremony persisted among the Chinese, but it was borrowed by the Japanese and practised by them so recently as late mediaeval times, as attested by a passage in the Heike Monogatari. A royal prince is born: -

Referring to the Chinese ceremony, Professor Karlgren writes: - "Could we get it more clearly stated that bows and arrows are the symbols of the happy birth of male children?" Here, as I have already stated, I am inclined to suggest that the ceremony stands for something more.

I regard the arrow, with which the bow is identified, as signifying authority and power, themselves attributes of the male. Thus an arrow not only represents the male child, but also the husband, as among the Oriya, where in all castes except the Brahman a girl is married to an arrow if a suitable husband has not been found for her before she reaches puberty [6], while among the cultivators of Ganjam if a girl cannot find a husband before puberty a "nominal marriage ... is performed with a bow in the place of a husband." [7] But the arrow is also the symbol of authority other than marital, as in China in recent Manchu times, when a golden arrow was carried by an Imperial messenger as a token of his high office.

A much older example of the use of the arrow to signify the highest authority is recorded by Ssu-ma Ch'ien. The occasion is the defeat of Chou Hsin, the last king of the Shang-Yin dynasty, by Wu, afterwards first king of the Chou dynasty. After being conquered in battle, Chou Hsin committed suicide by throwing himself into the flames of his burning palace. Wu now comes upon the scene:

The shooting of arrows into the dead body of a rival can only have been ceremonial, part of the ritual assertion of sovereignty on the part of the victor; no doubt this also applies to the shooting of the bodies of the favourites, presumably because they were identified with the King of Wu.

All this agrees well with a series of ceremonies in other parts of the world where the shooting of arrows towards the four cardinal points by a royal archer, signifies not birth, but the taking possession of the kingdom. I will quote two examples, the second no doubt derived from the first though separated from it by a period of at least 2000 years. The shooting of arrows towards the cardinal points by the king-elect was part of the enthronement ceremony of the Pharaoh, as it was of the sed ceremony which -- in theory at least -- was celebrated for the first time 30 years later, when the king, with his youth renewed, was again supposed to take possession of the land. The only certain representation of the rite that has survived is of Dynasty XXV (712-633 B.C.) and shows Taharka and his queen. It is the latter who lets fly the arrows. [9] There are, however, several representations of the king shooting the arrows. These may apply to the sed festival, or more probably to the coronation ceremony, e.g. the scene from Karnak. [10]

My second example of an arrow-shooting ceremony is from the heart of Africa and belongs to our own time. Nevertheless, knowing how deeply Egyptian influence penetrated dark Africa, we cannot doubt that it is derived from the Egyptian sed.

Roscoe records that the King of Kitara (Unyoro) at his "coronation" performed a rite described as "shooting the nations". This was done with the royal bow, Nyapogo, restrung with human sinews at each succession: --

"When it had been restrung it was handed to the king with four arrows, and he shot these, one towards each of the four quarters of the globe, saying ‘Ndasere amahanga kugasinga’ (I shoot the nations to overcome them), and mentioning as he shot each arrow the names of the nations in that direction. The arrows were sought for, brought back, and placed in the quiver for the next occasion, for this... was an annual ceremony, taking place about the beginning of the year." [11]

In these ceremonies there can be no doubt that the arrow-shooting dramatizes the taking of the land and all that is therein, the supreme assertion of power.

With regard to the association of ancestral spirits with the bow and arrow. In the Li Ki it is recorded how in the seventh century B.C., after the battle of Shing-king between the armies of Chu and Lu, the former being victors used ar,rows for recalling the dead. [12]

A recently published work affirms -- though I am unable to judge how much weight should be attached to the statement -- that the arrow is still used in China in connection with the cult of the dead. [14]

In Manchuria the connection is close. I am indebted to my friend Dr. Otto Samson (lately of the Hamburg Museum für Völkerkunde) for drawing my attention to the following extremely interesting practice, though since his information was acquired with difficulty the account must be taken as incomplete.

At least some of the Manchu have in their tents certain "ancestor bags" (Ahnentasche in the Guide to the Hamburg Museum, where the specimen that Dr. Samson obtained is preserved). These are about two feet square, made of rough cloth, and contain a number of figures representing the ancestors of the family. The specimen collected contained male figures, to which offerings were made at stated times, and normally the bag was only opened on these occasions. There is also a "bag" containing effigies of female ancestors; when a son is born a miniature arrow and a knife is dropped into this, when a daughter, a red or green silken ribbon . [15]

I am unaware to what extent the arrow is equated with ancestors among the Negroes and Negroids of Africa, though among some of these peoples the association is very close in the case of the spear. [16] Perhaps this is to be accounted for, at least in part, by the fact that the spear is a simpler device than the bow, and (perhaps because of this) greatly preponderates in Africa. Among ourselves, as I am informed, the bow and arrow occurs scarcely if at all in the symbolization (dreams and fantasies) of neurotics, in spite of the fact that most children have them as toys.

To sum up: I have shown that there is a close, connection, amounting in my opinion to "identification" in the psychological sense, between the bow and arrow and child (or ancestor), in Southern India, Assam, and China. I have also indicated that there are two areas, (1) the Nile valley, and (2) the Far East, where the ceremonial shooting of arrows is the sign of the assumption of the highest authority, and in each instance it has been easy to see in which direction the ceremony has spread. I do not, however, suggest any direct historical or genetic relationship between the arrow beliefs and ceremonies recorded in Africa and the Far East, though I do not deny that such relationship may exist. In the present state of our knowledge I should prefer to regard the arrow (and with it the bow) as one of those widespread symbols which, as in the case of many other weapons, are especially significant of the male sex on account of their penetrating power. If we regard this as the primary symbolism, then it is a simple step for the bow and arrow to represent the birth of a male child, while the idea of vigour and authority, inherent in maleness and the begetting of children, is transferred to the act of authority by which a royal infant potentially inherits, or, as sovereign, actually takes possession of his kingdom.