652 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



feather is carefully split from one eud to tlie otlier, and the jiith and 

 unnecessary parts of the quill carefully removec, so as to leave the 

 plume and only a strip of the midrib. In laying the feather upon the 

 arrow-shaft differences of manipulation existed among the different 

 tribes. In some of them the midrib was laid close to the shaftment 

 and glued tight, while the ends were seized with sinew, and the plume 

 was shorn either very close to the .shaftment in a parallel line or into 

 some other artistic form. Not only the knowledge of birds was necessary 

 in the choice and the arrangement of the feather, but there was a great 

 deal of mythology connected with the proper bird whose feathers should 

 be placed upon the arrow and the position and seizings connected with 

 the feathering. (Plates xl-lx.) 



The manufacture of the head of the arrow and its various parts 

 involves knowledge of bone, ivory, or horn, and also familiar acquaint- 

 ance with stone and stone-working. Arrowheads differ from one 

 another in material, in size, in form, and in methods of attachment. 

 The savage arrow-maker was a mineralogist. He not only knew the 

 qualities of rocks but also their best methods of working, as well as the 

 best conditions in which they existed for his purposes in nature. In 

 each country the material employed is in every case the best from that 

 region. In a large collection from the United States arrow-heads have 

 been made of every variety of quartz, chalcedony, agate, jasper, horn- 

 stone, chert, novaculite, slate, argillite, and obsidian. In rare cases even 

 quartz crystal, earnelian, amethyst, and opal were used. In working 

 these materials the savage inventor soon found that the physical 

 properties and availability of the material changed by natural sur- 

 roundings, lie knew by experimentation that a stone lying in a lu'ook 

 yielded him better results than one exposed to the sun and the weather 

 on the open fields, and that a bowlder buried in the damp earth where 

 it has lain for many centuries gave him safer results with less work 

 than the brook pebble, so that he not only became a critical expert in 

 the qualities of materials, but also was led to become a quarry man 

 in order to exploit the proper materials. It has been very well shown 

 by Professor Holmes that many spots supposed to have been the 

 refuse heaps of Indian camps for many years, are only the sites of 

 of ancient stone quarries, and the })ieces found buried in these heaps 

 are the refuse of their manufacture. In places the necessary rock 

 could not be found in bowlders either on the surface or in the streams 

 or in the gravel beds, but the materials were part of ancient ledges 

 under ground, as in Ohio, Arkansas, and other places. It was neces- 

 sary there to remove tlie surface soil, to dig out great pits, and by 

 means of sledges and fire and other means within the capabilities of 

 this Indian workman, to detach cores and masses of material which 

 could be subsequently worked up into arrow-heads and other imple- 

 ments. As soon as the arrow-maker had secured his stock he began 

 to work it up into the shape desired, first, with a stone hammer, by 



