NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 641 



concave side, when struug, by si piece of bone 10 inches long, firmly 

 secnred by treenails of the same material. At each end is a horn of 

 bone, or sometimes of wood covered with leather, with a deep notch for 

 the reception of the string. The only wood which they can procure 

 not possessing suffieient elasticity combined with strength, they ingen- 

 iously remedy the defect by securing to the back of the bow, and to 

 the horns at each end, a quantity of small lines, each composed of a 

 plat or ''sinuet" of three sinews. The number of lines thus reaching 

 from end to end is generally about thirty; but, besides these, several 

 others are fastened with hitches round the bow, in pairs, commencing 

 8 inches from one end, and again united at the same distance from the 

 other, making the whole number of strings in the middle of the bow 

 sometimes amount to sixty. These being put on with the bow some- 

 what bent the contrary way, produce a spring so strong as to require 

 considerable force as well as knack in stringing it, and giving the 

 requisite velocity to the arrow. The bow is completed by a woolding 

 round the middle and a wedge or two here and there, driven in to 

 tighten it. 



The bow represented in Boas's ftg. 439, p. 503, is from Cumberland 

 Sound and resembles the Iglulik pattern. The fastening of the sinew 

 lines is different and the piece of bone giving additional strength to the 

 central part is wanting. In Cumberland Sound and farther south 

 wooden bows each made of a single piece Avere not very rare; the wood 

 necessary for their manufacture was found in abundance on Tudjan (Res- 

 olution Island), whence it was brought to the more northern districts. 



The bows which are made of antler generally consist of three pieces, 

 a stout central one beveled on both ends and two limb pieces rivete^ 

 to it. The central part is either below or above the limbs, as repre- 

 sented in Boas's lig. 440, p. 503. These bows are strengthened by 

 sinew cord in the same way as the wooden ones, and generally the 

 joints are secured by strong strings wound around them. A remark- 

 able bow made of antlers is represented in Boas's fig. 441, p. 503. The 

 gripis not beveled, but cut olf straight at the ends. The joint iseffected 

 by two additional pieces on each side, a short stout one outside, a long 

 thin one inside. These are firmly tied together with sinews. The short 

 piece prevents the bow from breaking apart, the long one gives a 

 powerful spring. The specimen figured by Boas was brought home by 

 Hall from the Sinimiut of Pelly Bay, and a similar one was brought by 

 Collinson from Victoria Land and deposited in the British Museum. 

 The strings are attached to these bows in the same way as to the 

 wooden ones."* Plate lxiv, fig. 4; lxv, figs. 1, 2. 



The compound Eskimo bow is found in a region where timber does 

 not grow, where driftwood even does not come in such state as to be 

 serviceable, and where whale, narwhal, caribou, and musk ox furnish 



* c/. Franz Boas, The Central Eskimo, Hep. Bur. Ethnol., vol. vi, pp. 502,503. 



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