"Dragon" mentions a weapon called "spear-throwers" (iirc) which were not widely used. One of his messmates had to tell Vlad what they were. Perhaps the bow and arrow wasn't yet invented. > > > On Wed, 17 Nov 2004, Jerry Friedman wrote: > > > Deer can be raised domestically. I think that if you try to get > > venison in America, most of what you find will be from farms. > > Ok, that blows up this line. > > > > > Also note that > > > Dragaeran hunters use neither bows/arrows (is this true?) or firearms. > > > Other forms of deer hunting which I'm vaguely familiar with are > > > extremely uneconomical. > > > > Why do you think they don't use bows and arrows? Something I can't > > remember? (Quite likely.) Just that Vlad wasn't familiar with them in > > _Dragon_? > > That, and various places in the Vladiad where a quarrel or arrow > through someone's throat would simplify matters, and Paarfi's failure > to mention them in various places where they would be apropos.