650 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



the noise of the gun put the man or beast to be killed quite as much 

 out of the reach of that weapon as the little alarm created by the archer 

 had moved the victim away from his weapon. 



THE ARROW. 



" The ancient arrow-maker 

 Made his arrow-heads of sandstone. 

 Arrow-heads of chalcedony. 

 Arrow-heads of flint and jasper, 

 Smooth and sharpened at the edges, 

 Hard and polished, keen and costly.' 



LllNGFELLOW. 



The continent of America furnishes excellent facilities for the study 

 of the arrow. Every variety of climate, material, and land or water 

 game are here, to create an indeiinite diversity of structures. 



In its simplest form, the arrow is a straight rod pointed at one end, 

 perhaps in the fire, and notched at the other end for the bow-string. 

 But such a missile would be of little worth; and so the arrow has 

 undergone many modifications in answer to the demands of the hunter. 

 The parts of a highly developed arroAv are the following: 



(1) The shaft; of which it is necessary to study the material, the 

 technique, the form, the length, the grooves, and the ornamentations. 



(2) The shaftment; which is that part of the shaft upon which tlic 

 feather is fastened. This section of the arrow varies in length, in form, 

 and greatly in ornamentation, because it is the part of the weapon 

 upon which bands and other ornamental marks are usually placed. 



(.')) The feathering; or the strips of feather or other thin nniterial laid 

 on at the butt of the arrow to gi\e it directness of flight. The study 

 of this feature includes the method of seizing; the attaching to tlie 

 shaftment; the position of the feather, whether flat or perpendicular to 

 the shaft; the manner of trimming the plume; the line, whether straight 

 or spiral, upon which each feather is laid, and the glue or cement. 



(4) The nock ; or the posterior end of the arrow, seized by the fingers 

 in releasing. This is a very important feature in the study of this 

 weapon. For instance, the Eskimo arrows have flat nocks, while all 

 other arrows in the world seem to be more or less cylindrical or spher- 

 ical. In sonn^ the form is top-shaped; in others, bull)ous; in others, 

 cylindrical; and in others, spreading, like the tail of a fish or swallow. 

 In modern arrows a footing is added to the nock. 



(5) The notch; or cut made at the end of the arrow to receive the 

 bowstring. Each stock of aborigines has its own way of making this 

 cut at the end of the arrow; and this characteristic, born of the mate- 

 rial, though seemingly unimportant, is frequently helpful to the student 

 in deciding upon the tribe to which the arrow belongs. 



(G) The foreshaft; or that piece of hard wood or bone or ivory or 

 antler laid into the anterior portion of the shaft and trimmed to a 

 symmetrical shape. It serves the double purpose of making the front 



