"Ratio" of weapons of "civilian" S.Chinese... ?

[yuanzhumin]

Hello Kukulza,

Here are all the infos I have on the Taiwanese crossbows:

- See Material Culture of the formosan Aborigines , by Chen chi-lu.
PP152 153 154
To sum up what's in the book: Crossbow is found in Formosa only among the Tsou and Saisiat tribes; no more in use among Formosan tribes; it is a mainland culture trait ; introduced by Chinese settlers and diffused to the mountain tribes; in general, the crossbow appear to be a combination of bow and blowgun, what is confirmed by the facts that crossbows darts were often used with poisoned tipped - something that didn't diffuse into Taiwan together with the crossbow
See the drawing from Chen chi-lu of a Saisiat crossbow in the collections of the Nat. Taiwan Univ.

- my own info:
From my collection:
http://www.formosatribal.com/show.php?item_id=108
From my memory, i have seen few years ago aboriginal hunters -- poachers, I would say to be more exact :-) -- equipped with a crossbow. It was in central Taiwan (Alishan area) but I don't remember if they were Bunun or Tsou. (Kukulza, i'm listening now to the last Matzka CD!)

Best

Nicolas