ll, and with
the cross-bow the length of the bolt was accurately defined; for the
latter the size was generally established by a parchment ring, the
distance from the stand to the target was given in feet, and the length
of the usual foot was expressed by black lines in the programme.
Sometimes they measured by paces, in that case two of the stranger
competitors, a neighbour from the nearest city, and one from the most
distant, stepped the distance and settled it together.

The number of shots also allowed to each was affixed on the butt and
target. At the smaller meetings in ancient times, they were about
twelve, fifteen, or sixteen; later, at the great meetings, they rose to
thirty, forty, or even more shots. With fire-arms the shooter sometimes
fired three shots in succession from his place, but with the cross-bow
only one, and they shot in divisions, quarters, and standards,
sometimes arrayed under banners according to the towns. At the grand
cross-bow shooting at Ratisbon, in 1586, a pattern meeting of moderate
size, the Protestant and Catholic places were carefully divided. Then
each of the three, four or five standards had to shoot in a definite
time; when all the standards had shot once, it was called one shot, or
one course, the best shot of each standard of each course was called
the bull's eye.

The most ancient weapon was the cross-bow, with steel bow and bolt,
which was stretched by a pulley; it began to supplant the hand bow and
arrow shortly before 1400, but the latter was still used in the army
for some time, for example, in the Burgundian War, nay, it was
sometimes used in the sixteenth century, at the shooting games.[60] The
cross-bow, after 1400, became shorter and more handy, and at the end of
the prize-shooting festivals, a smaller one was used with a trigger for
amusement. The cross-bow was drawn in braces, or secured in a network,
so that no accident might arise if it sprung; the bolt with an iron
point and a feather shaft was provided for the popinjay, with filed
iron teeth, which, in hitting, split the joints of the wood; the
pointed or, later, the blunt bolt served for target practice; the
archer shot without a rest. The cross-bow, up to the Thirty Years' War,
was considered by the prize-shooters as the most distinguished weapon,
and continued so, even long after it had been supplanted by fire-arms
in war and in the chase; it was more especially retained by the
aristocratic party, the princes