NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 665 



ping the butt end of the arrow with a narrow riband of birch bark until 

 it resembled a small Turk's head knot. The Plains Indians also created 

 a bulbous nock by whittling away the arrow shaft a fourth of an inch 

 above the end, leaving a cylinder for a finger grip. 



(4) The swallow-tail nock, an exceedingly dainty form affording a 

 wide open notch and flaring finger grip, without waste of material. 

 (Examples in Plates xliii-xlvii.) 



Notches for the bow-string were either very shallow, angular gashes, 

 U-shaped cuts Avith parallel sides or gracefully curved incisions resem- 

 bling the horizontal portion of the Greek letter i)si. 



Combining tbe notch with the nock the student has a mark which is 

 helpful in deciding the band or tribe. At any rate, American arrows 

 dift'er in both. 



There is another characteristic noticeable at this jwint, tbe distance 

 of the nock from the feathering. In some tribes the latter crowds 

 down over the nock. In otlier, more dainty specimens, the feathering is 

 several inches away. 



This special characteristic connects itself with Prof. Morse's most 

 interesting study respecting " arrow release." It will be easily seen 

 that tlie thin, flat nock of the Eskimo lends itself easiest to the second 

 or the third class of Prof. Morse, while the bulbous nock and the 

 flaring nock conform most easily to his first class, in which the thumb 

 and first joint of the forefinger pinch the butt of the arrow. Coming 

 south, into the reed arrow country, where the nock is cylindrical, the 

 Tertiary release might be looked for. 



Dr. Shnfeldt describes the method of arrow-release among the oSTava- 

 joes.* 



"Having read, with great interest, Prof. Morse's pamphlet on arrow- 

 release, it was with no little curiosity that I handed a bow and two 

 or three arrows to an old gray headed warrior present, and asked 

 liim, ' Draw — as if you were about to kill the worst enemy you had in 

 the whole world.' The old fellow seized the bow and arrows, and 

 immediately drew one of them to its very head. This is the position he 

 stood in at'the time: His left foot was slightly in advance of the right, 

 the bow was firmly vSeized at its middle with the left hand, while it was 

 held somewhat obliquely, the upper moiety inclining toward the right 

 from the vertical line, and, of course, the lower limb having a correspond- 

 ing inclination toward the left side. The two spare arrows were held 

 with the bow in the left hand, being confined by the fingers against its 

 right outer aspect. With the right hand he seized the proximal end 

 of the arrow in the string, using the thumb and index finger, at a point 

 fully an inch or more above the notch, and consequently including the 

 feathers. The ring finger bore against the string below this seizure, 

 and its pressure was re-enforced by its being overlapped by the middle 

 digit, the little finger being curled within the palm of the hand. 



"This corresponded to Prof Morse's secondary release as figured on 

 page 8, of the above referred-to pamphlet, with the exception that the 

 middle finger should overlap the annularis, and was not of itself used 



* Am. Nat., vol. xxi, p. 784. 



