NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 637 



Sefin. (^Vf Thumb ring.) 



Self how (sinn)le), mado of a single piece of wood or other material. 



Shaft, anciontly an arrow, but strictly the portion behind the head, and in a lore 



shafted arrow the lighter portiou behind the foreshaft. 

 Shaft G IK )()VE.s, furrow cuts along an arrow shaft from the head backward ; tJioy 



have been called blood grooves and lightning grooves, but thes<; names are 



objectionable as involving theories ot function little understood. 

 Sh.\ftmext, the part of an arrow on which the feathering is laid. 

 Shaxic, the part of an arrowhead corresponding to the tang of the sword bhnlc. 

 Shout arrows, those which fall short of the mark. 

 Sides of an arrowhead, the sharpened portions between the apex and the base, also 



called the edges. 

 SiNF.w-BACKEi> I5()W, one whose ehisticity is increased by the use of sinew along the 



back, either in a cable, <as among the Eskimo, or laid on solid by means of glue, 



as in the western United States. Wedges, bridges and splints are also used. 

 Slekjht, the facility with which an archer releases his bowstring. 

 Sp.\li>, a large tiake of stone knocked off in blocking out arrow heads. 

 Stele (stale, shaft), the woodeu part of an arrow, an arrow without feather or 



head. 

 Strixgek, aniaker of bowstrings. 

 Target, a disk of straw covered with canvas, on which are paint<'<l concentric 



rings, used in archery as a mark in lieu of the ancient butt. 

 Tnt Jin rtixG, a ring worn on the thumb in archery by those i>eoplcs that use the 



]Mougolian release; called sefin by the Persians. 

 Tir, a term applied to the sharp apex of an arrowhead. 



Trajectoi;y, the curve which an arrow describes in space, may be flat, high, etc. 

 V?:neer, a thin strip of tough, elastic substance, glued to the back of a bow. 

 Weight of a bow, the number of pounds required to draw a bow until the arrow may 



stand between the string and the belly, ascertained by suspending the liow at 



its grip and drawing with a spring scale. 

 Whippixc; (seizing, serving), wrapping any part of a bow or arrow with cord or 



sinew regularly laid on. 

 W^iDK arrows, those shot to the right or left of tlie mark. 



Most of the words coiitaiiuMl in this vocabulary stand for t'haracter- 

 istic'S "wliich are important in the study of bows and arrows according 

 to natural history methods. By means of these terms any number of 

 bows and arrows may be laid out so as to become types for all sub- 

 sequent accessions and classifications. False information is thus 

 eliminated, slowly, but the most scrupulous curator is not able to get 

 rid of all that at once. 



In all times the bow and the arrow have been the basis of much art 

 and metaphor. Kot only is this true in higher culture, as in the Bible, 

 the Homeric poems, or the "arrow-head" w^riting of the Mesopotami- 

 ans, but eveu among the North American Indians. The charming 

 Ute ditty, 



The doughty ant marched over the hill 

 With but one arrow in his (juiver, 



could easily be matched in other tongues, The ludians of the South- 

 west fasten an arrow dipped in blood on the l)odies of their stone 

 fetiches and call them the lightning. And Mr. Frank Cushing sug- 

 gests that the posltious of the elements in cuneiform writing are those 

 of arrows dropped from the hmd iu cliviuatiou, 



