98 



BULLETIN 87, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 





The first reference to arrow customs in America is found in the 



narration of Castaiiecla, who writes that the tribes of the river 

 Seiiora, northern Mexico, " Have some little huts 

 for shrines, all over the outside of which they stick 

 many arrows like a hedgehog. This they do when 

 they are eager for war."^ At the present time 

 there are arrow shrines in the neighborhood of 

 Zuni. " To insure success in the hunt arrows are 

 shot into a vertical fis- 

 sure in an inaccessible 

 rock on the west wall 

 of Towayallane (Com 

 Mountain) . A hundred 

 or more arrows were to 

 be seen in this cleft in 

 1879." Mrs. Stevenson 

 also writes that the In- 

 dians shoot at a picto- 

 graph on the face of a 

 cliff 30 miles southwest 

 of Zuili and success is di- 

 vined for the one whose 

 arrow hits the niark.- 



In Mexico at the time 

 of the conquest offerings 

 made to those who had 

 died in war were four 

 small arrows a span in 



length, secured each to a little torch by 



ineans of cotton cords and with tliem were 



|)laced two unsalted tamales. The offering 



was dejDosited on the tombs and when it 



]iad remained there all day, at night was 



set afire and burnt to ashes. The latter 



were then interred over the grave of the 



dead in honor of the warriors.^ They also 



^et apart a day for making arrows belong- ^^^ 204.-decorated bow from 



ing to individuals for shooting.* bear creek cave. 



Ceremonial arrows among the Huichols are described by Lumholz ^ 



and it is apparent that these objects bear a close relationship to those 



from Bear Creek Cave and other caves of this region, as well as 



Fig. 203. — Bont head 

 ceremonial arrow 

 from Bear Creek 

 Caa'b. 



1 The Coronado Expedition. 14th Ann. Kept. Bur. Ethnology, p. 515. 



2 The Zuni Indians. 23d .^n. Kept. Bur. Amer. Ethnology. 

 sSahagun, p. 145. Paris, 1880. 



* Idem., p. 145. 



6 Unknown Mexico, vol. 2, New York, 1902, pp. 201-205, 



