640 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



meiited also at the end by the skin or rattle of the rattlesnake.* The 

 type belongs to the stock everywhere. 



"The Apache bow was made always of the tou,yh, elastic mountain 

 mulberry, called par excellence, ' Iltiu,' or bow wood. Occasionally the 

 cedar was employed, but the bows of horn, such as were to be seen among 

 the Crows and other tribes of the Yellowstone region, were not to be 

 found among the Apaches and their neighbors of Arizona. 



"The elasticity of the fiber was increased by liberal a])pliciitions of 

 bear, or deer fat and sincM' was, on rare occasions, glued to the back 

 for tlie same purpose. + 



It is not probable that any southern tribes of the family, to which 

 the Apache belong, ever dwelt east of the Rocky Mountains. The 

 Athapascan sinew^ veneered bow is found strictly west of the Rockies, 

 the slender variety in the Basin and British Columbia, the flat vaj-iety 

 on the Pacific Slope. The Navajo also have adopted this type of 

 sinew-lined bow. 



The Cherokees lived in the Piedmont portion of the Appalachians 

 in Carolina. Georgia, and Tennessee. The finest oak, ash, and hick(n"y 

 abounds in this region. These tribes used every variety of available 

 elastic wood for bows, the toughness of \\ hich they improved by dipping 

 them in bear's oil and warming them before the fire.f The Ciierokees 

 were Iix)(pu)ian and their bows niay betaken as the counter])art of those 

 made by the Six Nations. The Algonquin bows were similar. 



The Pawnee warrior always preferred a bow of hois (Varc, and besides 

 the one in actual use he would often have in his lodge a sti(;k of t^je 

 same material, which at his leisure he would be working into shape as 

 a provision against possible exigency, l^ows of this wood were rarely 

 traded away. Boiv iVitrc^ however, was to be obtained only in the 

 South, and for the purpose of procuring it a sort of commerce was kept 

 U[) with certain tribes living there. § 



The Blackfeet made their bows of the Osage Orange, but they were 

 compelled to procure it by trade from the tribes down on the Arkansas 

 River. 1 1 The Blackfeet are Siouan in language and dwelt in the buffalo 

 country in northwestern Dakota. They were in the same mode of life 

 as the Pawnees, who dwelt farther south and are of the Caddoan stock. 

 The whole length of the Missouri River was traversed in this Blackfeet 

 commerce. (Plate i.xxxiv, fig. 2.) 



The Central Eskimo, about Hudson J>a.v, have two kinds of bows 

 (pitique), a wooden one (Boas's figs. 438 and 439, p. oOU), and another 

 nmde of reindeer antlers (Boas's figs, 440 and 441, p. 503). Parry gives 

 a very good description of the former (ii, p, op)): 



"One of the best of their bows of a single piece of fir, 4 feet 8 inches 

 in length, flat on the inner side and rounded on the outer, being o inches 

 in girth about the middle, Avhere, however, it is strengthened on the 



* Whipple, etc.. Pfto. R, R, Rep., vol. jjl, p, 32, pi, 41, bow and (inivor. 

 t.I. G. r»ourkt', letter-, Also J. G. Moriop, Traus. Can, Ini^t., iv, 58, 

 tTimberlako, (luotod by Jones, So. Iiuliiuis, p. 252, 

 ^ The Pawnee Indians, J. \\, Dunbar. 

 II Maxiwilian'a Travels, p. 257. 



