NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 655 



arrows led a man into iiuiiiy trades — quarryiiian, stoneeutter, niiiieralo- 

 gist, sinew dresser, and wood worker. In the far North lie must be 

 also worker in bone, ivory, and horn. As a rule, in ail savagery, both 

 wnth men and women, the user of an implement must be its manufac- 

 turer. Yet, the differentiation of trades is a necessary step in the 

 progress of culture, and our Indians had taken it more than once. 



The North American savages were excellent (piarrymen. In every 

 region they knew the very best kinds of siliceous stones, the very best 

 places to find these stones, the natural conditions under Avhich they 

 were kept in the most fracturable state, the best way to break, flake, 

 and chip each stone into the desired shape.* The Indian was also a 

 good lapidary, as numerous sites examined by Holmes will attest. 



Arrow-heads are found in immense numbers about the fields and along 

 the banks of rivers in the CFuited States. It would not be an error to 

 say that they are numbered by millions. They occur in great abundance 

 ui)on the sites of ancient cami)s, near shell heaps, fishing grounds, and 

 about the fields where used to wander the deer and other game sought 

 by the Aborigines. This is evidence that the making of an arrow-head 

 was an easy matter, while the shaft required much time and jtatience 

 to finish. 



It has been said that by means of the stone, the shape and artistic 

 skill with which it is wrought, the edges, the tang, and the conse- 

 quent attachment to the shaft, arrows differ from tribe to tribe and 

 individual makers show certaiu*idiosyncrasies in the same tribe. Chert, 

 slate and ivory in Eskimo land, wood and bone along the volcanic 

 portions of the Pacific Slope, in British Columbia and Alaska; the 

 most beautiful heads in the world of obsidian and jasper series in 

 Oregon and California, coarser stone in the East at once proclaim 

 what kind of arrows this or that tribe used. 



According to Holmes the stages in making an arrowhead are fractur- 

 ing, chipping, flaking. Fracturing is done at the quarry or wherever the 

 original stone is picked up. The simplest fashion is breaking one stone 

 with another; but stone from a (piarry works better than surface bowl- 

 ders. When the workable stone was in masses the Indian had more con- 

 venient tools, stone hammers or sledges, jiicksof wood or antler, and even 

 fire if he had need of it. The first operation is to break up the original 

 bowlders or masses so as to get out of its interior spalls capable of 

 being wrought into blades. Each kind of stone had its own best way 

 of treatment, whether quartz, <iuartzite, rhyolite, chert, agate, Jasper, 

 chalcedony, obsidian, or what not. There did not exist in the United 

 States so pliable a form of flint as that occurring in great abundance 

 in western Europe. Obsidian and jasper gave the best results. 



Chipping was also done with a hammer, but, this time, a pebble of 

 hard stone, oblong, convenient for the thumb and two fingers, and 



" See W. H. Holmes, Am. Anthropologist, vols, v., vi. ; J. C. McGuire, id., vol. v. ; H. 

 C. Mercer, Pop. Sc. Month. 



