NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 639 



of eacli culture area, to make the bow aud the arrow that each region 

 woukl best help hhu to create. His was an epoch of differentiation. 



"The rule laid down by the Apaches for making' tlieir bows and 

 arrows was the following' says Bourke: 



"The length of the bow or rather of tlie string should be eight times 

 the span from thumb to little finger of the warrior using it. 



" The curvature of tlie bow was determined almost entirely by indi- 

 vidual strength or capriee. 



" The arrow should equal in length tlu^ distance from the owners arm- 

 ])it to theextremity of his thumb nail, measured on the inner sideof his 

 extended arm; tlie stem should i>roJect beyond the reed to a distance 

 equal to the span covered by the tliumb and index finger. This meas- 

 urement included the barb when made of sheet iron. The iron barb 

 itself should be as long as the thumb from the end to the largest Joint. 



"Torquemada says that the Chichimecs, among whom he includes 

 the Apaches, made bows according to their stature, a very vague 

 expression. {Mon. Ind. lib., xxi, introduction.) 



" Gomara savs that the Indians of Florida traen arcos de doce palmas. 

 {Hist, (le las liidias, 181.) 



" Landa describes the Indians of Yucatan as making bows and arrows 

 in the manner of the Apaches; La largnra del arc(j es siempre algo 

 menos (pie el que lo trae.'' (See Cosas de Yiieatan, Brasseur de Bour- 

 bourg, Paris, ]86Jr.*) 



Baegert says the bows of the Lower Califoruia Indians were more 

 than six feet long, slightly curved, and made from the root of the wild 

 willow. The modern cottouwood bow, from the same region, is a long, 

 clumsy affair, very near to the most primitive types. (Plate lxi, fig. 1.) 

 The bow-strings were said to be made of the intestines of beasts. The 

 shafts of arrows were common reeds straightened in tlie hre, six spans 

 long, feathered, fore-shafted with heavy wood, a span and a half long, 

 with triangular flint poiut.t (Plate xli, fig. 2.) 



Coville says that the Panamint Indians of Death's Valley, California, 

 make their bows from the desert juniper (Jimiperus californica utahen- 

 sis). The Indian prefers a piece of wood from the trunk or a large limb 

 of a tree that has died and seasoned while standing. In these desert 

 mountains moist rot of dead wood never occurs. The bow rarely 

 exceeds three feet in length and is streugthened by gluing to the back 

 a covering composed of strips of deer sinew laid on lengthwise. The 

 string is of twisted sinew or cord made from twisted hemp. J 



These Panamint belong to the Shoshonean sto(;k, spread out over the 

 Great Interior Basin, and all the tribes use the sinew-lined bow, with 

 transverse wrappings of shredded sinew. (Plate lxi, fig. 4.) 



The bow of the Chemehuevis (Shoshonean) is characteristic of the 

 stock to which they belong, being of hard wood common in the region, 

 elegantly backed with sinew and bound with shredded sinew, orna- 



" Capt. J. G. Bourke, letter. 



t Siuitltnonian Report, 1863, ]). 362. 



\Am, Anthrop., Waslaiugtou, 1892, vol. v, p. 360. 



