Hmong crossbow
stock: 34 1/2"
Excellent example of the type of weapon the Hmong tribesman
of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia were using before we armed them with M-16's.
These crossbow were a lot quiter and much less prone to jam, so the use
continued throughout the entire Vietnam "Peace Keeping" (yeah, right)
mission. An American vet traded this to me for a nifty little indonesian
knife, said he was tired of having the memories around.
I'm used to hearing these weapons described as "Montagnard" crossbows, but a
helpful fellow recently wrote and told me that the people called themselves
Hmong and that Montagnard was a perjorative term.
additional information received from Cyclura99 on 7/20/01:
"Hi I wanted to let you know there is a big difference between what the French called Montagnard (Highlanders) and the Hmong.The Montagnard or Dega tribes there are over 25 different tribes. There are 54 different ethnic groups living in Vietnam. They the Hmong are not related to what the vets called Montagnards.The Hmong entered Viet Nam from southern China 300 yrs ago. The largest Immigration of 10 k Hmong was in 1868 when they fled during the Taiping Rebellion against the Ching Dynasty.
What Montagnards or Dega people what they like to be called, are various tribes that have been Indigenous to Viet Nam for thousands of years,(very similar to how the USA was in the early 19th c with all the different native American tribes) was with tribes such as the Bahnar,Jorai, and the Edde.
They are in no way related to the Hmong in any way not even linguistically.
This crossbow I am sure looks to be Hmong but looks relatively new."
Thanks, Cyc!
prod: 44"
arrows: 19 1/4"
quiver: 13 1/2"
8/03/01