Nayin
| Nayin | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Information | |
| Weapon type: | Bow weapon |
| Designations: | Nayin, Fang : mban |
| Use: | Hunting weapon |
| Creation time: | is assumed to be 15./16. century |
| Region of origin / author: |
Equatorial Guinea , Gabon and Cameroon : Pangwe and Mpongwe people |
| Distribution: | Africa , western / central Africa |
| Overall length: | 100 to 150 cm, sheets about 60 to 65 cm wide |
| Material: | Wood |
| Particularities: | Arrow poison |
| Lists on the subject | |
The Nayin is a crossbow of the West African people of the Pangwe, who belong to the Fang linguistic family and live in what is now Equatorial Guinea , Gabon and Cameroon . The Pangwe's own name for the crossbow is mban .
The crossbow is also known to other West African peoples such as the Yoruba , Mandinka and some others from the Bay of Benin and from the north of Cameroon. The West African crossbow has a characteristic split shaft like the Scandinavian crossbows. It is believed that European traders brought this type of crossbow to the Bay of Benin in the late Middle Ages , where it was copied.
description
The nayin is made of wood. The shaft is wider at the front, roughly in the shape of a duck's head. A straight square cutout serves as a holder for the arch, which is fixed with a pin . In the end, the shaft is thinner and split. The lower part of the split shaft is made very thin and only connected to the shaft in a small piece. There are two types: with one, the lower sheet is only split from the upper wood, with the other, the lower part is simply attached to the upper part. In the upper part there is a recess that can accommodate the tendon and hold it in place.
For tensioning, both feet are placed on the bow and the bowstring is pulled towards the lock with both hands until it clicks into place. Alternatively, the shaft is tucked under the armpit, the knee is braced against the arch, and the tendon is pulled into the notch with your hands, pushing the tenon and lower blade down slightly.
To launch, the thinner part of the shaft is pressed upwards, the two shaft blades are pressed together at the back. A pin is attached to the thinner part, which pushes the tendon out of the nock and thus triggers the shot.
There are two different types of arrows for the nayin . The first version is about 60 cm long, has iron tips and is used for larger game. The second version, called ebe , consists of thinly carved raphia leaf stem bark and is about 30 cm long. Since they have no iron tips, they are so light that they could be blown off the shaft of the crossbow by the wind. To avoid this, the shaft is coated with beeswax or rubber-like material in the area of the arrow rest. A cavity is made in the lower shaft area in which a supply of this rubber is kept. In use, a certain amount is applied to a small area on the arrow rest and the arrow is placed on it. The ebe arrowheads are usually smeared with poison.
Wood from the Annonaceae family such as Meiocarpidium , Xylopia and Hexalobus is used for the shaft . For the bow the stronger wood from the families is Icacinaceae , soap tree plants (Sapindaceae), the Rinorea , Rubiaceae , Randia and Trichoscypha taken. The short arrows (muzzle: ebe ) are made from the petiole bark of the raphia . They are split at the lower end so that a triangular piece of leaf can be clamped as an air traffic control.
The arrow poison is obtained from seeds of Strophanthus ground into a paste , Tessmann suspects from the Strophanthus kombé , with about 250 µg per kg body weight. The crossbow is used to hunt monkeys, squirrels and smaller birds. Despite their effectiveness, crossbows were not used as a weapon of war. The crossbows often have a carved geometric ornament.
literature
- Günther Tessmann : The Pangwe. Ethnological monograph of a West African Negro tribe. Results of the Lübeck Pangwe expedition 1907–09 and earlier research 1904–1907. Volume 1. Ernst Wasmuth, Berlin 1913, pp. 140–142 (Figs. 89 and 90).
- Henry Balfour : The Origin of West African Crossbows. In: Journal of the Royal African Society . Volume 8, No. 32, 1909, pp. 337-356. ( JSTOR 715233 ).
- Paul Belloni Du Chaillu : Explorations and adventures in Equatorial Africa. Harper, New York 1861, pp. 107-108. ( Internet Archive ).
- Richard Francis Burton : Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo. Volume 1. S. Low, Marston, Low, and Searle, London 1876, pp. 207-208. ( Internet Archive ).
- George Cameron Stone : A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration, and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times: Together with Some Closely Related Subjects. Southwork Press, Portland, Maine 1934, pp. 467-468. Reprint: Dover Publications, Mineola, New York 1999, ISBN 0-486-40726-8 .
- Howard L. Blackmore: Hunting Weapons from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century: With 288 Illustrations. Courier Dover Publications, Mineola, NY 2000, ISBN 0-486-40961-9 , p. 215. ( limited preview with Google Book Search )
- Herbert Senge: An old Pangwe collection of the Institute for Ethnology at the University of Göttingen with special consideration of the West African crossbow , In: Göttinger Völkerkundliche Studien Hans Pliscke (Hrsg.), Commissioned by Otto Harrassowitz, Leipzig, 1939, pp. 148-167 . ( Digitized version ).
Web links
- Sample picture from the Pitt Rivers Museum , inventory no. 1884.16.2. Accessed November 1, 2013.