weekend whatsit
A bit of history:
“Even at a range of 240 yards heavy war arrows shot from bows of poundages in the mid- to upper range possessed by the Mary Rose bows would have been capable of killing or severely wounding men equipped with armour of wrought iron. Higher-quality armour of steel would have given considerably greater protection, which accords well with the experience of Oxford’s men against the elite French vanguard at Poitiers in 1356, and des Ursin’s statement that the French knights of the first ranks at Agincourt, which included some of the most important (and thus best-equipped) nobles, remained comparatively unhurt by the English arrows.”
Strickland M, Hardy R. The Great Warbow. Sutton Publishing 2005. Pages 272–278
The English longbow had a draw weight that topped out at about 100 pounds. The Mongolain horsebow topped out at about 160 pounds. Both fired arrows of similar size and mass; 3 feet long and 3 1/2 ounces (!!!!). Even without the perhaps superior eastern metallurgy of the 1100s, the Mongolian arrow would be hitting quite a bit harder than the English one at similar ranges. And the English arrow could go through lesser plate armor. So I think it’s fair to posit that those bodkin arrows and the Mongol bow made for a whole lot of really dead knights.
None of this bodkin stuff has anything to do with odds bodkins, which was a Shakespearean era way of blaspheming in a socially acceptable manner.
UPDATE AND ANSWER:
These are archery rings.
They have been used across the Far East for centuries to shoot the short, heavy composite bows that are indigenous there, and they are still used today. When you shoot an arrow while using an archery ring, you are using what is called the Mongolian Release ... because I guess the Mongols invented the darn bow, and the thumb ring, and then the horde. And then they took over the world. As John Freakin’ Kerry put it, ”in fashion reminiscent of ‘Jeng-gis Khan‘“ ... because they were WITH Genghis Khan.
The Mongolian bow was a mighty little thing, with nearly double the draw weight of the English Longbow. It had nearly twice the accurate effective range, and the bodkin pointed style of arrows they used - which may have been hardened steel, which China has had since forever, much longer than the West, and the Horde took over China before going after Asia and Europe - those arrows would shoot right through fully armored knights. Riding in on their STEPPE ponies (and thus my “step” pun in the comments) they would attack in a circular rolling wave, each archer shooting tangentially forward as they rode around. No army could stand against them. They could shoot you dead long before you could shoot back. But short bows have steep string angles, and steep string angles make it impossible to use the 3 fingered release we use here in the West. And bows with 160 pound draw weights make it impossible to use the Pinch Release. No, you use a thumb ring, and releasing an arrow is as easy as flipping a coin. It’s actually the same hand action as flipping a coin, just turned sideways. It’s faster than the other styles too, which lets you shoot more enemies as your pony runs past.
The first redhead on the horse is Katie Stearns, a modern horse archer who calls herself The Flying Duchess. Here she is again, Mongolian bow in use:
Once upon a time, Episode #119 to be exact, the MythBusters crew approached the “rumor” that shooting arrows from a running horse made them penetrate twice as much. This obviously is not true, though it may have been a bit of a cultural memory from long ago, because a narrow, hardened, bodkin pointed Mongol arrow fired from a Mongol bow launched by some short hairy dude riding a pony ... that arrow will go right through you. Whereas the more knife-like broadpoint European style arrow fired from a less powerful longbow by a standing archer will just go mostly through you. Either way you’re dead, but that MythBusters angle allowed me to post team member Kari Byron’s photo. Yeah, like I need another reason to post pictures of cute redheads. And where did the MythBusters go to learn how to shoot bows from horses? Gosh, they went to visit the Flying Duchess, because she teaches it.
Oh, the status symbol thing: once the horsemen of the Steppes took over China, suddenly it was cool to be an archer if you were at Court. So a bunch of fakers started wearing fancy jade thumb rings. Over the generations the Chinese version of the archery thumb ring lost it’s flattened bill and just became a cylindrical ring. But the Chinese composite bow is nearly identical to the Mongolian bow. And once the Horde took over Europe, well at least the areas where present day Turkey and Hungary are, the Turkish bow became less like the Scythian bow and far more Mongolian in design. As did the Hungarian bow. Because it’s a better weapon. Between China and Turkey is India, and they got in on the act too. Did the Mongols take over India along the way? Yes they did! Was the Moghul Dynasty Mongol derived? Ever hear of this guy called Tamerlane? So that answer is, You Betcha. I’m pretty sure that the two fancy rings pictured are from the Moghul period.
So there you go. A piece of history that has killed thousands and thousands, has been a status symbol, has been turned into jewelry, and is still in use today. And I hate to say it, but I think fuckface Kerry was right about the pronunciation. From what I can dig up, the first Khan there really was “Jing Gis”. But our soldiers never behaved in any way reminiscent of the Horde ... because that would mean killing everyone as fast as possible, and then moving on. Not standing around the same damn rice paddy for a decade, being micromanaged from the other end of the world. That’s the other reason the Horde almost never lost - they never stopped coming. Or going. They never stopped, period. Retreat? Surrender? Coffee break? Nap time? No such terms in their language.
Here’s a pooper-scooper full of links:
http://www.asianart.com/articles/rings/index.html#7
http://www.primitiveways.com/archer%27s_thumb_ring.html
http://mountedarchery.net/equipment/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer%27s_paradox
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_release#Mongolian_Draw.2C_Mongolian_release
cross section of this kind of bow: http://www.atarn.org/chinese/visible_bow/visible.htm
http://www.atarn.org/chinese/making_chinese_bow/making_bow.htm
http://www.themiddleages.net/life/arrows.html
The bows are held together with fish glue. Fish glue is also known as isinglass. The other kind of isinglass, which can be used to make windows for your Surrey With The Fringe On Top:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mica#Isinglass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isinglass
And trying to find out what Isinglass was got me started on this whole thing. Song lyrics from Oklahoma! to Isinglass to fish glue to Mongolian bows to Mongolian Releases to archery thumb rings to mounted archers to interesting redheads to Mythbusters. You can still buy fish glue today, though the price varies. It is much stronger than rabbit skin glue. Heck, for composite bows it’s stronger than epoxy. Too bad it isn’t fully waterproof.
http://apps.webcreate.com/ecom/catalog/product_specific.cfm?ClientID=15&ProductID=17576
http://www.ginellames.fr/us/creations/colle/
http://mythbustersresults.com/exploding-bumper
http://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/online/thumbring/thumbring.shtml
http://www.scrappleface.com/?p=1604
video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q81H-V1_gGo
This is a plain one:
These are fancy ones:
They were not originally designed to be jewelry, but they have been status symbols in the past.
They have been around for a very long time.
Once you know what they are, searching for them can lead you to these two impressive redheads:
Yes, that is Kari Byron from Mythbusters.
Hmm, I’m wondering if I should have left that last bit off. That might make this both too easy and too distracting. Anyway, a correct answer will not just name the object, but describe it’s proper use. References to John F’ing Kerry are optional, in context. Crivens, I just gave out another clue!!
{Sunday night} : Ok, time to get blatant. With this gizmo nearly the entire known world was conquered in just a couple of decades. And the parts that weren’t conquered were scared shitless, because they knew they were powerless against it. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands died due of it.
What, no takers? Gosh.
The Kerry remark really is a huge clue. What smarmy, elitist, I’m-smarter-than-you utterance is he infamous for? Even ScrappleFace mocked him for it. A bit of research down the right avenue ... which is hinted at somewhat by the first redhead picture and by the written clues ... and you’ll have the answer. Sure, I could put in an eight-by-ten colour glossy photographs with circles and arrows, but that would make it too easy. So c’mon, step right up.
Gak, I just gave you 2 more clues in addition to the big hints, even if one is a very weak pun. And no, the answer has nothing to do with Alice’s Restaurant.
Free caulk for the winner!!
Posted by Drew458
10/24/2010 at 09:55 AM
Ok, Ian guessed it. But he was nice and sent in his guess by email. He didn’t need the clues since he uses one himself I think. Or at least knows his subject enough to know about these things. So they are very old, but still in use today ... although not all that common here in America or Western Europe.
Do you guys need more clues, or is no one interested (or even reading) ?
Posted by Drew458 10/24/2010 at 04:10 PM
Reading - yes
Interested - yes
Have no friggin’ clue - yes (although I was entertaining some erotic speculations until I read that a guy (I’m assuming Ian is male) uses one)
Posted by CenTexTim 10/24/2010 at 08:09 PM
That’s what guesses are for! I mean, hey, it could be a fancy left handed nostril picker, for folks with really large schnozzes. Like John Kerry.
Or it could be some kind of old fashioned hair doopy, once used on fancy horses by the best of the warrior caste, but also favored these days by redheads with tons of thick rich hair. Once upon a time, pretenders at the royal court wore them to make other people think they too were mighty warriors, but they weren’t. Status symbols. And that’s when they got fancy, in a conspicuous consumption way.
It could be a stone accountant’s visor made to fit mice, made by a lost civilization that went bankrupt when somebody invented cats.
It could be an artificial foreskin, fancied up for visiting the vestal virgins. Made from smooth stone or stiff leather, used with a bit of milk glue it was the Viagra of early civilizations in the Far East.
It could be a removable harpoon barb that fits over a narwhal tusk spear point.
A cap lifter. A bottle opener. A fish gutter. One brass knuckle, made of stone. A labrette of some kind.
But it is none of those.
Posted by Drew458 10/24/2010 at 09:57 PM
Irritated - Yes
Posted by Elvula 10/25/2010 at 12:14 AM
Mark also figured it out, though he admits it took him a bit of googling to get there.
Posted by Drew458 10/25/2010 at 10:58 AM
Give already…
Or are you going to continue to mine this vein of frustration?Posted by Elvula 10/25/2010 at 04:18 PM
I must admit that I just can’t fathom what redheads and John Kerry have in common. And I have no idea what to google. But in any event, here’s a few lame guesses.
It/they are pommel decorations (that’s a saddle horn for you non-horse types) for miniature ponies.
It/they are penis rings for little people. (I warned you that I was having erotic speculations.)
Some sort of off-the-wall guitar picks.
/signed/ Clueless
Posted by CenTexTim 10/25/2010 at 05:01 PM
Must admit to embarrassment here. Being a dilettante archer since my youth, never have seen a mongolian release. Consider this vein depleted, deflated...whatever…
Posted by Elvula 10/27/2010 at 08:56 PM
Awesome
Posted by grayjohn 10/28/2010 at 05:22 AM
Yes I too attempted to connect John Kerry and Keri Byron - you do not want to know where that dragged me. I was totally flummoxed and having done archery in my youth - should have guessed it - but since I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night - my memory sucks.
Interesting - and if things had not been chaotic around here - I’d probably been able to do some real googling, binging and yahooing. But it doesn’t mean I’d get to the answer at all!
God Help America
A Proud American InfidelPosted by wardmama4 10/28/2010 at 10:45 AM
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