286 SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



the third kind (Fig. 136), each having a handle, so that it looked like 

 a bat. Such a shield is 24 by 10 inches, and is made by shrinking bark 

 into a curved shape by water and heat and stiffening it with a cross 



stick. 

 The wooden shield of Western Australia is shown in Smith's work. 209 



The shield of the North American In- 

 dian is made of buffalo hide. In making 

 it, a piece of bull-buffalo skin is selected, 

 twice as large as the shield required. A 

 hole is dug in the ground, as large as the 

 future shield, and a smudge of smoke of 

 rotten wood is made under the skin, which 

 is pegged above. As the skin is heated, a 

 glue made of the horns and hoofs is rubbed 

 in hot, which causes the skin to contract, 

 and the pegs are regularly loosened to al- 

 lowit to shrink, at the same time keeping- 

 it stretched. When it has imbibed the 

 necessary quantity of glue, and has 

 reached the dimensions of the hole, being 

 twice as thick as in its natural condition, 

 it is ready for the trimming and dressing 

 which complete it as a shield 



The Uaupe Indians of the Amazon 210 

 use shields of wicker-work, sometimes 

 g covered with tapir skin. Sometimes the 

 hide of the vaca marina or sea cow is used 

 by the Amazon Indians for making shields; it is the largest animal ac- 

 cessible, and its skin fills the place occupied by the rhinoceros, hippo- 

 potamus, and elephant hide in the torrid regions of Africa. 



VI. — BOWS AND ARROWS. 



The use of poison upon arrows by savages is very ancient, and is yet 

 found in many distant parts of the world. The very name tor "poison" 

 in Greek (toacicon) — and tin' Latin is similar — is derived from the word 

 equivalent to "arrow." Commencing our notice of bows and arrows with 

 South Africa, the first example we find is the poisoned arrow of the 

 bosjesman, or bushman. 211 



•■ I'.ut Mack as death, the thin-forged bitter point, 

 That with the worm's blood late did erst anoint." 



Death of Paris. (Earthly Paradise.) 

 This arrow is in several pieces; the head is a triangular iron plat.i 

 inserted into the end of a short section of reed, which slips over a piece 



Aborigines of Victoria, Melbourne, 1878, p. :::'. ( .t, Fig. 148. 

 '-"'Wallare's "Amazon," \>. 504. 



alis' Basutos, siv; Livingstone's Travels, p. 189; Baiue's South Africa, pp. 

 144, i:>", 164. 



Fig. 136. — Woodt n %hv his of Victoria, Aus- 

 Iralia. 



