642 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



ideal mateiial for the purpose. Last of all came the whaler with i)lenty 

 of hoop wood, and the ship's blacksmith. In the National Museum the 

 material for the comj)ouud bow is baleen, antler, horn, ivory, and wood 

 from whale ships. The grip is the foundation piece, round and rigid. 

 The limbs are worked to shape, spliced on to the ends of the grip and 

 seized in place by a wrapping of sinew yarn or cord or sinnet. The 

 notches are cut on both sides of the nock, which is often pegged on to 

 the end of the limb with treenails. The whole class of projecting 

 weapons must be looked upon as a lesson in techno-geography and 

 as a remarkable example of the i)ower of human ingenuity to throw off 

 all precedents and predilections under suflicient stress and lesort to 

 those new methods which luiture declares to be the only thing to do. 



As previously intimated every Indian boy learned to make a bow. 

 Every Indian man had a certain amount of skill in the art, and when 

 he scoured about the forests, the capabilities of trees for his purposes 

 engaged his thoughts. He saved up good pieces for a rainy day and 

 made the improvement of his artillery a pastime. When he became 

 old, if the fortunes of his existence accorded him such a doubtful bless- 

 ing, he kept his hold on his tribe by becoming a bosvyer when he 

 could no longer take the field. Since the substances used in making 

 bows are of the region, techno-gc<>graphy finds an excellent illustration 

 in the study of the bows of North America, which may be on this basis 

 thus divided: 



(!) The hard-icood, seJf-hoiv (ire<(. It embraced all North America 

 east of the liocky Mountains and south of Hudson Bay. This area 

 extends beyond the mountains along the southern border, and is invaded 

 by the compound bow at its northeastern extremity. Indeed, in those 

 regions where more highly differentiated forms i)revailed, it constantly 

 occurs as the fundamental pattern. (Plates lxi-lxiv, lxxx, lxxxi, 



LXXXIII-LXXXVI, LXXXIX.) 



(2) The conipound-hoic area. By the compound bow is meant one in 

 which the gri]) and the two wings are separate pieces, or one in which 

 the cupid's bow is made uj) of as many bits of horn as are necessary. 

 There are really two compound-bow areas, the northeast Eskimo and the 

 Siouan. The former has been described by Boas. 



The compound bows of the Sioux are made of buffalo and sheep horn 

 and of the antler of the elk. Dr. Washington Matthews states that he 

 has seen a bow made of a single i)iece of elk horn. All the examples 

 examined by the writer are wrapped with flannel or buckskin so as to 

 conceal every trace of the joints made by the union of the different 

 parts. The compound bows of the Si(^ix are the most beautiful in 

 shape of any among savage tribes and recall the outlines of the con- 

 ventional form of artists. In both types the comi)ound bow arose 

 from a dearth of wood for nmking a self-bow. (Plates lxii, lxiv, lxv.) 



