NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 653 



means of which he knocked oft" ftakes or spalls of the pro]»er size and 

 shape. Sometimes he would introduce between his stone hammer and 

 the block of material a "pitching tool" of antler or hard bone. As 

 soon as the tlake of proper dimensions was removed, the next thing with 

 the artist was to bring this into proper form by means of the flaking 

 tool or flaker. The method of dressing the chip of flint into shape 

 varied from tribe to tribe; in some the pressure was downward; in 

 others it was upward; and the method of holding the hand and doing 

 the work will be described under the head of " arrow-makers' tools." 

 Arrow-heads are frequently confounded with spear-heads and knife or 

 dagger-blades. The smallest objects of this class are usually arrow- 

 heads, and the size alone would decide in many cases, because, after 

 reaching a certain weight, the blade would defeat its own ])urpose 

 by being any larger. But there is no difference in shape between 

 the arrow-head and the other objects mentioned. A great deal of 

 attention has been paid to the forms of arrow-heads, but they may be 

 reduced to a few simple classes, such as the leaf-shaped, either com- 

 plete or truncated; the triangular, and the stemmed. Sub divisions of 

 these classes have been formed by archeologists, but many of these 

 are such as have resulted from the limitations of the material m the 

 hand of the artist. Fie has simply made that particular form because- 

 the material would yield to that and no other. Prof. Thomas Wilson, 

 in classifying the arrows in the National Museum, mentions those, first, 

 with beveled edges, the bevel being in one direction; second, with ser- 

 rated edges; third, with bifurcated stem*; fourth, with long barbs at 

 the ends; fifth, triangular in section; sixth, broadest at the cutting 

 end; and, seventh, all polished arrows. 



As will be seen in the general and special descriptions of arrows, 

 other substances besides stone were used for the heads. In the north 

 and among the Esquimauan stock, frequently bone, ivory, antler, horn, 

 and wood are found taking the place of stone. In each case that 

 material w^as selected which would bring about the best results. For 

 instance, what is called the "rankling" arrow, for the destruction of 

 the reindeer, has its head made from the leg bones of the deer, the 

 barbs upou the side are very sharp, and the dowel, for the insertion 

 into the shaft of the arrow, very small, so that when the animal is 

 struck the head would easily come out of the shaft and at every move- 

 ment of the victim be carried further in toward its vital parts. Com- 

 ing southward along the Pacific Slope, slate replaces chipped stone, 

 and for barbed arrows native copper, bone, and wood are used. A 

 few arrows from this region have also heads of shell. Along the 

 Kocky Mountain slopes, in the land of the buft'alo, before the days of 

 iron heads, bone Avas used quite as often as stone in the fabrication of 

 arrow-heads. Very few specimens are preserved in cur museums of 

 arrows from the tribes of the Eastern States, but historians convince us 

 they were not diftereut from their Western relatives in the material and 



