660 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



For straightenins the shafts of arrows, and even the bone or ivory used 

 for X)oiuts, tlie abori,uiiies employed a kind of wrench. In the south it 

 was merely a convenient bit of wood, spindle-shaped, having a hole 

 through the middle. The Utes used the end of the horn of the moun- 

 tain sheep, perforated with holes of different sizes. The Plains Indians 

 utilized the hard bones of the buffalo. The West Coast tribes made 

 use of blocks of elk horn, and the Eskimo carved out of walrus ivory 

 excellent tools for this purpose.* (Plate xxxix.) 



For grinding down and polishing arrow shafts the Indian had a 

 special set of tools. There are in the L^ S. National Museum from sev- 

 eral localities small slabs of sandstone with a shallow groove running 

 longitudinally in which the arrow shaft was laid and drawn back and 

 forward. The leaves of grass containing siliceous matter served for the 

 smoothing- process. Finally, a smooth stone or bit of bone served to rub 

 down the shaft and put ou the finishing touches. The term "shaft 

 grooves " is preferable for those straight or serpentine or zigzag furrows 

 cut on an arrow shaft between the shaftment and the head or the fore- 

 shaft. They have been alleged to bo symbolical of the lightning to invoke 

 the spirit of destruction to dwell in the arrow. Others denominate them 

 "■blood-streaks," supposing they i)romote bleeding from a wound, so 

 that the hunter could follow up his game by the trail of blood. The 

 reed shafts never bear such streaks; the Eskimo do not make them, 

 neither do the Northwest Coast Indians. Athapascan, Shoshonean, 

 Siouau, Kaiowan tribes are especially given to this practice. The fur- 

 rows do not always follow the same plan, and it would have been easy 

 some years ago to work out series of patterns for these marks and 

 determine their relation to tribes. They are in general : (1 ) straight and 

 parallel; (2) wavy and sinuous; (o) zigzag, without design. (PI. xli, 

 fig. 3.) 



The same tribe used arrows of about one length and weight, as cor- 

 rect shooting, like good penmanship, is a balancing of a hundred sensi- 

 bilities. Every good archer drew his bow to the arrow head every shot, 

 for near or for far. If one's bow be drawn always to arrow-head, and 

 one's arrows be always of the same length, whether from his own quiver 

 or from another's, the elements of variability are much reduced. It 

 nuist be from some such cause that the arrows of each tribe agree so 

 nearly in length. Indeed, since neighboring tribes shoot one another's 

 arrowSj there is undoubted inter-tribal agreement in length within limits. 

 It is not here affirmed that the arrows of a tribe are exactly of a length. 

 The variations are within certain narrow limits. 



The author has measured a large number of quiver contents. The 

 arrows of one quiver agree absolutely. The arrows of a tribe agree 

 within a narrow margin. Often, especially in the buffalo region, there 

 seemed to be a species of international agreement in the length of the 

 arrow. 



The foreshafted arrow finds its occasion first of all in the country of 



* Boas.; VI, An. Rep. Bur. Ethnol., Washington, 525. 



