662 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



same reason the foresliafted arrows of the South aud Southwest are 

 loosely put together. The coloring- of the shaft of arrows is techni- 

 cally called the riband. The Eastern tribes, the Basin tribes, and the 

 Eskimo paint their arrows very little. Not much stress could be laid 

 on this characteristic except on the California and Oregon coast. Here 

 the a^^thor finds the following to be true : Tlie arrows in the same quiver 

 have the same riband. Tlie arrows in the same tribe have the same 

 general type of riband, and the same colors occur in old arrows. From 

 tribe to tribe there occur differences in riband, but they have not been 

 studied out. 



The selling of prepared paints and dyes to the Indians by traders 

 has introduced inextricable confusion into this characteristic. The 

 riband on the arrow is generally in the shaftment or that portion of the 

 arrow covered by the feathering. These bands and stripes have been 

 called clan marks, owner marks, tribal marks, and the like, but they 

 are not decisive in such matters. 



According to Mr. Hough "African arrow-heads and feathering are 

 fastened on with grass, palm-leaf strips, and other vegetable libers, and 

 many are tanged or socketed, and are not lashed at all."* Piipuan 

 arrows are served with, vegetal liber, the Ainos use bark, and in 

 South America many tribes lash with natural libers. 



Most tribes of North America do not use any cement in fastening the 

 head upon the shaft. The shrinking of the sinew is quite sufiticient to 

 hold all snugly in place. But in the Southwest of the United States, 

 the Algarohia glandulom, t\\e Prosop'iH juU flora ., aud the Laria mexicana 

 yield excellent gum, which is used by the Shoshonean and Yuman 

 tribes to attach the arrow-head, without the use of the sinew. t (PI. 

 Ill, hg. 2.) Pine tree pitch and animal glue are also used. 



The feathering of an arrow is an interesting study from place to 

 place. It is governed by a host of considerations. As to this char- 

 acteristic, arrows may be un feathered, two feathered, three feathered, 

 many feathered. The feathers vary in length from those only an inch 

 to others a foot long; in adhesion, from those attached only at their 

 extremities, and lying close or standing ott", to others glued hard and 

 fast to the shaftment their entire length. In some tribes the strips of 

 feather are laid flat along the shaftment, as among the Eskimo and 

 the west coast tribes, but in the great majority the feathers radiate 

 from the shaft. In some tribes the strips of feathering are without 

 "ornament, in others they are shorn along the margins to be straight, 

 triangular, and notched and a bit of downy feather is left at the nock 

 as a streamer. In this respect, when carefully cut, some of the west- 

 coast arrows present a decidedly natty appearance. 



On one occasion an Apache Indian came to the author\s department 

 of th*". National Museum and, at his request, placed the feathering aud 



* American Naturalist, vol. IV, p. 61. ] Am. Naturalist, 1878, p. 595. 



