6G6 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



to draw back the striii^ti'. I noticed, too, that the arrow at its head was 

 on the left .side of tlie bow and simply rested on top of liis clinched 

 hand. This man wore, in common with all the others who used the 

 bow, a stift leather biacer, fastened by buckskin striiif^s about his left 

 wrist, the collar being about 2 inches deep, and this, in several others 

 who stood near and who wore them, was ornamented with silver but- 

 tons. He drew the arrow back and forth three or four times without 

 (•hanging' the position of his finger or hands, when J suddenly asked 

 him to shoot as if he were going to kill a squirrel running up a tree. 

 He smiled at this and simply drew the bow the same irai/. Upon 

 fnrthcr questioning liim, he told me that the Navajoes rarely held their 

 spare arrows in the l)()w hand, as he now had them, but carried a scab- 

 bard (quiver of buckskin) full, in front of them, from which they could 

 be removed with great rapidity while firing; this he immediately 

 demonstrated to me from one of the scabbards worn by an Indian there 

 present." 



In archery-arrows aiul in Asiatic examjjles a piece of hard wood is 

 inserted at the nocking end of the arrow. But in American arrows 

 the nock is always a part of the wood of the shaft. This piece, in 

 technical language, is called the "footing," but it need not be here dis- 

 cussed. 



The subject of poisoned arrows in North America is a vexed one. 

 A very high authority has said that the thing was unknown. But I 

 have the testimony of Bourke to the contrary. iSTo one avers that these 

 aborigines prepared a vegetable poison, like the curari. But the toxic 

 effect of putrid flesh was known, whether or not bitten freely by rattle- 

 snakes. Dr. W, J, Hoffman will l»ring together the evidence on this 

 subject.* 



Powiaken, a Salish chief, declared to Mrs. McBean that obsidian 

 and glass ]>oints in iiriows were poisonous (U. S. N. .M. letter). 



The Koniagas i>oisoned their arrow and lance points with a prepara- 

 tion of aconite, by drying and pulverizing the root, mixing the i)owder 

 with water and, when it fermented, applying it to their weapons. 



Bourke furnishes the following: "Selecting the roots of such plants 

 as grow alone, these are dried and ]Kmnded or gr:ited." (S(()ier, Bil- 

 HiKfs Ex., 178.) 



They made arrow points of copper, obtaining a su])]>ly from the 

 Kenai of Copper River; and the wood was as finely finished as if turned 

 in a lathe. 



"Die Pfeilspitzen sind aus Eisen oder Kupfer ersteres erhalteu sie 

 von den Kenayern, letzteres von den Tutnen." {Baer, Stat. u. EtJni., 

 US.) 



"De pedernal en forma <le arpon, cortado contanta delicadeza como 

 pndiera hacerlo el mas habil lapidario." [Bodi'ija y Qxadra, yav., MS., 

 6'6'.)t 



*For Soiitberu Indians, see Jones, p. 248. tSee Bancroft, Native Races, i., 79. 



