NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 645 



The bow-string amoug the North American tribes was made of the 

 followiug: 



(1) Strips of tough rawhide phxiii or twisted. 



(2) String made of the best fibers of the country — hemp, agave, etc. 



(3) The intestines of animals cut into strips and twisted. 



(4) But most frequently of sinew. 



The strip of gristle extending from the head along the back and serv- 

 ing to support the former, and those taken from the lower part of the 

 legs of deer and other ruminants were selected. These were hung up to 

 dry. For making bow-strings the gristle was shredded with the fingers 

 in fibers as fine as silk in some tribes, but coarser in others. These fibers 

 were twisted into yarn on the thigh by means of the palm of the hand, 

 after the juanner of the cobbler. For making the twine some tribes 

 employed only the fingers. Taking two yarns by one end between the 

 tips of the thumb and forefinger extended of the left hand, the twister 

 seized one yarn with his right hand, gave it two or three twists and laid 

 it down on the palm of the left where it was kept in place by the 

 fingers. Seizing the other yarn he repeated the process, brought it 

 over the first yarn, laid it on the palm, caught the other yarn with the 

 fingers of the left and seized the yarn first twisted with his right hand, 

 all without losing a half turn. The writer has seen this work done with 

 great rapidity. New strands of shredded sinew or vegetable fiber may 

 be introduced at any time. 



Both in New Mexico and in Alaska the natives make twine by means 

 of a twister that works after the fashion of the watchman's rattle. But 

 this device may be an innovation. The string of the Cherokee bow is 

 said to have been made of twisted bear's gut.* The same material is 

 mentioned in other connections east of the Mississippi River. There is 

 a faint suspicion that in some instances the narrator mistakes the sinew 

 cord for gut strings. 



The study of the knots of savages is yet incomplete. Again many 

 bows are sent to museums without strings, or unstrung, or falsely strung. 

 The lower end of a bow-string, technically called the noose, was fast- 

 ened on by the " timber-hitch," two half turns or hitches. There is no 

 "eye," so called, wrought on the string, but the bow is strung by mak- 

 ing two or more half hitches around the notches at the upper end. 

 Neither is there any nocking point seizing on the bow-string of any 

 Aiaericau tribe. 



The ancient bowyers made these ends of their bows of horn and 

 trimmed and polished them in great fashion. Many examples from 

 the Malayan and the Papuan area have the extremities very daintily 

 carved. But the American bow has nothing approaching this. In a 

 few Oregon examples the sinew backing is at the extremities gathered 

 up in a hornlike extremity and finished off with fur, beads, and the like. 



" Jones, So. Indians, 252. 



