and shooting at their pursuers with their
arrows as coolly, and with as correct an aim, almost, as if they were
still. While thus retreating the trooper would guide and control his
horse by his voice, and by the pressure of his heels upon his sides,
so as to have both his arms free for fighting his pursuers.

These arrows were very formidable weapons, it is said. One of the
travelers who visited the country in those days says that they could
be shot with so much force as to pierce the body of a man entirely
through.

[Illustration: SHOOTING AT PURSUERS.]

It must be remembered, however, in respect to all such statements
relating to the efficiency of the bow and arrow, that the force with
which an arrow can be thrown depends not upon any independent action
of the bow, but altogether upon the strength of the man who draws it.
The bow, in straightening itself for the propulsion of the arrow,
expends only the force which the man has imparted to it by bending it;
so that the real power by which the arrow is propelled is, after all,
the muscular strength of the archer. It is true, a great deal depends
on the qualities of the bow, and also on the skill of the man in using
it, to make all this muscular strength effective. With a poor bow, or
with unskillful management, a great deal of it would be wasted. But
with the best possible bow, and with the most consummate skill of the
archer, it is the strength of the archer's arm which throws the arrow,
after all.

It is very different in this respect with a bullet thrown by the force
of gunpowder from the barrel of a gun. The force in this case is the
explosive force of the powder, and the bullet is thrown to the same
distance whether it is a very weak man or a very strong man that pulls
the trigger.

But to return to the Monguls. All the information which we can obtain
in respect to the condition of the people before the time of Genghis
Khan comes to us from the reports of travelers who, either as
merchants, or as embassadors from caliphs or kings, made long journeys
into these distant regions, and have left records, more or less
complete, of their adventures, and accounts of what they saw, in
writings which have been preserved by the learned men of the East. It
is very doubtful how far these accounts are to be believed. One of
these travelers, a learned man named Salam, who made a journey far
into the interior of Asia by order of the Calif Mohammed Amin
Billah, some time be