664 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



(4) Method of attacliment, by sieziiig, or gluing, and to each of these 

 there are many varieties. 



(5) Tlie part of tlie feather attached to tlie shaftnient, close glued, 

 standing off, or seized all ahnig by a spiral sinew thread. In many 

 museum specimens the glue has disappeared and feathers appear 

 standing off that ought to be close laid. 



Tlie featliers of arrows are usually laid on in a line with the shaft, 

 but many examples have come to light in which the feathers have a 

 spiral direction on the shaftmeut. On one occasion the writer saw an 

 Apache Indian linish the feathering of an arrow by seizing the two 

 ends of the feathering and giving them a twist, simply to make the 

 featliers lie flat on the arrow shaft. This goes for what it may be worth 

 in accounting for the spiral position of many feathers. It is inconceiv- 

 able that any savage should grasp tln^ i)roblem of the rifle bullet and 

 construct his missile accordingly. 



Captain J. (I, Bourke, U. vS. A., furnishes the following : " The Apaches 

 use three hawk feathers, arranged e(]uidistant along the shaft in the 

 direction of the longer axis, fastene<l with sinew. 



"TheUabeson the Amazon use three feathers spirally. (Wallace, 

 Amazon, London, 1853, 403.) 



•<■ The Pinias of the Gila have two feathers instead of three. {Cre- 

 monii, 103.) 



"Mackenzie states that the Hare Indians of British North America 

 who are, like the Apaches, members of the great Tinneh ftimily, use but 

 two feathers. ( Voyages, London, ISOO, 40.) 



" According to Morgan, the arrows of the Iroquois had but two 

 feathers and ended at the ])ower extremity in a twist. {Leaf/iie of the 

 Iroquois, N. Y., LS.")1, 300.) 



"The arrows of the Apache-Yumas are feathered spirally with three 

 feathers making a quarter-turn around the shaft. (Corbusier, in Amer. 

 Antiquarian, i^ovember, 1880.) 



"Maximilian, i*rince of Wied, speaks of the feathers of the Mandan 

 arrows being tied on at both ends like those of the Brazilians; he also 

 speaks of the si)iral line, either carved or painted red, which runs 

 along the greater number of arrows, and says that it represents the 

 lightning.'^ (London, 1843, 389.) 



"The exidanatiou I received was that the runnel permitted the 

 escape of blood and reduced the chances of expelling the arrow or the 

 shaft."* 



The nock of the American arrow is far more important than that on 

 the bow. A good classification may be based on this characteristic as 

 pointed out long ago by this writer. The following classes are easily 

 recognized : 



(1) The fiat nock, as in all Eskimo arrows and in very few others. 



(L') The cylindrical nock, most noteworthy on all reed arrow shafts 

 of the South and in those of the far Orient. 



(3) The bulbous nock, exaggerated in size on the West Coast, by cut- 

 ting away the cedar wood as much as it would permit, and then wrap- 



*J. G. r.ourke, U-tter. 



