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| Bows Cont. |
| Long Bow: the Gorean long bow is the height of a tall man. It has a flat back and a round belly and may be made of supple Ka-la-na wood. A proficient bow man should be able to loose 19 arrows in a Gorean ehn. It is not as popular among Goreans because of some impracticalities of use. It cannot be used from the saddle, and the warrior must be standing or kneeling to aim, making him a target. It is favored by the peasants who make them and is also known as the peasant bow. Northern Bow: a short bow, with short, heavy arrows, heavily headed, it is accurate with a short range of a hundred and fifty yards. It somewhat resembles the Tuchuk bow of layered horn in it's accuracy and striking ability, which is about a hundred and fifty yards. It is useful for close combat on a ship, and can easily be fired through a hole port with the oar withdrawn. Small Bow: used with great skill by the Red Savages from kailla back. No Gorean weapon can match it's rate of fire. A skilled warrior can fire ten arrows into the air, the last leaving the bow before the first has returned to the earth. It is highly maneuverable and easy to conceal. It can easily be swept from one side of the Kailua to the other. Short Bow: This weapon is heavily used upon Gor for hunting, sport and warfare. Among its adherents are the warriors of the Wagon Peoples, the panther girls (or Talunas), the Red Hunters and the Red Savages. It is much smaller in size than the great bow, and is better suited for use from the back of a kailla, tharlarion or tarn. It is often carved from a single, flexible piece of tem wood or ka-la-na wood, though such peoples as the Wagon Peoples and the Red Savages can craft shortbows of layered wood and horn, which gives such bows much greater strength and durability. The shortbow can fire as many different types of arrowheads as can its larger cousin, though with much less range and penetrating power. The arrows used by the shortbow are also much shorter than those employed by the great bow, due to the shorter range of the weapon's "pull." Arrows, Sheaf and Flight: "The Gorean sheaf arrow is slightly over a yard long, the flight arrow is about forty inches in length. Both are metal piled and fletched with three half-feathers, from the wings of the Vosk gulls. Mixed in with the arrows were the leather tab, with its two openings for the right forefinger and the middle finger, and the leather bracer, to shield the left forearm from the flashing string." Raiders of Gor, page 68 |
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