The sights of the older bows are very simple, and consist usually of two grooves across the stock, as in the German bow shewn in Fig. 7. The soldier's right thumb was placed in one or the other and a sight taken over it. The upper angle of the head of the bolt, in all cases, formed the fore-sight. As cross-bows were in use a very long time, and as they were costly to make, we find most of them have been altered in various ways. Thus a highly-refined back-sight has been fitted to the German bow already referred to, and there are various letters and numbers, some of them quite modern, stamped on the bow itself. These are probably identification numbers in various collectors' catalogues. Before the sliding windgauge-sight came into use, a peep-sight, formed of leather or parchment stretched on a frame, was common. It is such a back-sight that is on the Goat's-foot lever cross-bow already shewn. This form of back-sight survived also in the rook-shooting cross-bows.

Lastly we come to the missiles. These were called Quarrels, Viretons, and Matras. The first was so called from the square section of the head; the second, or Vireton, was made to spin on its longer axis in flight like a rifle bullet. This was accomplished by setting the wings at a slight angle to that axis. These two forms were the most common, and I shew herewith some specimens. The Matras was a blunt club-headed bolt, which was not intended to penetrate but to deal a stunning blow. I have never seen one, but their use is sometimes mentioned. Fire-arrows and vials of quicklime were also used.

No doubt you will have remarked that I have avoided the giving of exact dates, and of even probable countries of origin of almost all the specimens I have had the honour of shewing you to-night. I wish here to state that, owing to the existence of many types at one time, I have been unable to fix dates and origins with any greater exactitude. Of course where a bow bears the mark of a maker whose country and whose life are known, it may be fixed, but often a bow made say at Nuremberg might be exported and be fitted to a stock somewhere else, or a well proved bow would certainly not be thrown away if the stock were damaged or obsolete, so that, as a rule, we must be very suspicious of the weapon said to have been made in some particular year. There are exceptions,

FIG. 8.-Modern Sporting Cross-bows and Medieval Bolts.

FIG. 9.-French Sporting Arbalet à Jalet.

of course, such as the cross-bow of Catherine de Medici preserved at the Musée d'Artillerie in Paris, but I hold that the cross-bow is one of the most difficult of weapons to put a date to.

I must now bring my remarks to a close, apologising to those members of the Society who have made a close study of arms for my very sketchy paper, and expressing the hope that I may have been able to convey to the others some idea of the most powerful hand missile weapon invented by man before he adopted the labour-saving device of villainous saltpetre, which enabled him to kill his fellow-Christians without such an expenditure of muscular force.

No. XII.

THE PRE-UNION LEGISLATION OF SCOTLAND.

BY

J. H. MILLAR, ADVOCATE.

(Read at a Meeting of the Society held on 22nd February, 1907.)

WE have all heard, though perhaps we have not all rightly understood, the saying in which Fletcher of Saltoun expressed his concurrence, namely, that "if a man were permitted to make all the ballads [i.e. popular songs] he need not care who should make the laws of a nation." I have more than once tried my hand at drafting Acts of Parliament, and, although I have not yet attempted ballad-making, I confess to little doubt that the latter is the easier occupation, and may even, when a hit is made, become the more remunerative, now that an effective embargo has been laid upon the activity of a race of pirates whom a certain legislator not altogether unconnected with the West of Scotland at one time took under his wing. No one will probably be disposed to deny that primitive lyrics may exercise an influence upon national character and national morals, still less that the artless lays which are believed in unsophisticated quarters to spring spontaneously from the "great heart of the people," may afford valuable indicia as to the os (if one may employ a pedantic but useful word) of a given community at a given time. But there can be no question, I suppose, that the historian is on much surer ground in the statutethan in the song-book: and perhaps no raw material at his disposal is