SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 293 



Fig. 144.— Chipped flint tu 

 heads, Utah. 



The Oregon Indians make their bows of cypress, Cupressus Lawsoniana, 

 or of yew, Taxus brevifolia. The. wood is strengthened on the back 

 with sinew, in the manner so common throughout the Northwest, The 

 string is of sinew and the arrow of reed pointed with obsidian. The 

 arrow-head is chipped to form by a tool simi- 

 lar to that by which the glazier nibbles his 

 glass to shape. The feathers of the arrow are 

 set on spirally. Poison for the arrow-heads is 

 made by causing a rattlesnake to strike its 

 fangs into liver, which is then allowed to pu- 

 trify and the arrows are smeared therewith. 

 The bow of the Ahts of Vancouver's Island 239 

 is also of wood fortified with sinews. The arrow is large and has a 

 barbed bone lip ; the arrow for fish has two tips barbed on the inside 

 like the Australian fishing-spear, and clasps any object it may come 

 across. The feathering of the arrow is put on spirally. The Ahts have 

 also an arrow with a detachable barbed bone point, connected by two 

 cords with the shaft, with which they form an equilateral triangle ; the 

 shaft impedes the seal in its motions and acts as a float. The same fea- 

 ture is common in Eskimo harpoons. 



The bow of the Kutchin tribes of the Mackenzie and Youcon Pavers 

 are of willow, 5 feet long and with an enlargement at the grasp to pro- 

 tect the hand against the snap of the string. The arrows are of pine ; 

 arrow-head of bone of wild-fowl, or of bone tipped with iron for moose 

 or deer. 240 



The bow of the Greenland Eskimo is made of horn, bone, or wood, 

 re-enforced on the outer side with a multitude of deer sinews, which are 

 put on so tight as to give the bow some backward curvature. Its aver- 

 age length is 3£ feet. The bow string is twisted deer sinews. The 

 Eskimo arrows are of wood tipped with bone or stone; or in some cases 

 of wood and bone tipped with iron. Bow and arrows are in a quiver 



of seal-skin. Fig. 145 shows three arrow- 

 heads in the Greenland division of the Dan- 

 ish department ; the left-hand is of bone 

 and the others of stone. The Eskimo uses 

 a wrist-guard of bone plates tied together 

 and fastened by a button and loop; it re- 

 ceives the blow of the bow-string. 



In the warmer regions of America, like 

 the countries to which we have referred, 

 (lie poisoned arrow is no new thing. Her- 

 rera, the Spanish adventurer, died from the 

 effects of a poisoned arrow. De Soto's historians 241 mention arrows 

 barbed with flint, arrows without barbs, arrows of reed tipped with 



Fig. ll">. — Eskimo arrows, Greenland. 



•239 Wood, vol. ii, p. 7-2."). 



-"' Smithsonian Report, 1866, p. 322. 



-«' Irving, op. cit., pp. 191, 1%, 225. 



