detail of "stays" made of natural wrapping.

Tall buggers! Most definitely longbows

http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/Iriartea%20photo%20gallery_files/image016.jpg

this bloke is climbing one to get tissue samples for analysis. You can see why people call them the Bamboo Palm.

very cool, HT. i have a similar one in my collection, but much shorter and wrapped with rattan. the actual arrows are some kind of nodeless reed with hardwood foreshafts and rearshafts and are longer than the bow itself.

Ah thanks Wanna, I'm not the burliest tool in the shed but I know how to use my leverage and I keep in decent condition (give or take the occasional lapse ). Holding it back is around the same as holding up 20 or 30l of water, so you're probably right.

The back of the bow is indeed the inside of the tree trunk (though it's a grass species, and not really bamboo at all. the same culture DOES make cheapie bamboo knockoffs that do a pretty good job too, theyre just for show and kids etc, much lighter draw and spongier to shoot), blackpalms nodal spacing varies dramaticlly and people would pass on anything with too short or too long a length between em, on these they are about 30cm apart.

Arrows used where these guys are from (varies by island) were about 2/3 the length of the bow, no fletching, in PNG they tassle them but not in the Straits. Shorter versions from this part of the world are often dance bows, they're useable and based on bird hunting designs to start with but yeah usually thicker, shorter, often with feathers and whatnot added at the top n tail for looks.

I have some canes drying, will make up some more suitable arrows than the bamboo garden canes I am playing with at the moment

Must get on to rubbing these back and giving them a light coat of something or other, poor old things.