672 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



nail let into ii cleft in the top of the shaft, and secured there by a thread 

 of deer's sinew. The stock Avas about 3 feet iu length. It was feathered 

 with the 'gray goose wing.' They also use the feathers of the 'gripp,' 

 or sea eagle, on their arrows."* 



This testimony is of the same character as that relating to John 

 Smith. The Beothucs did not belong to any of the great Indian families 

 known, but were a stock apart. The rudeness of manufacture is also 

 noticeable in contrast with those of the Eskimo. 



"The weapons used in the loway tribe, and of whii li these people 

 have brouglit many, are very similar to those used in most of the 

 uncivilized tribes of iforth America, consisting of the bow and arrows, 

 the lance and the javelin, Avar-clubs, kuives, etc., and with these, as a 

 protection in battle, a leathern shield, made of the hide of the buft'alo 

 bull, sufficiently thick and hard to arrest an arrow or to turn the blade 

 of a lance." t 



The loways belong to the Siouan stock and their arrows are a shaft, 

 iron head, and three tolerably long feathers. The nock is either bulbous 

 or flaring, affording a grip for the thumb and fore finger. The quiver 

 is an elaborate affair. Indeed the quivers of the Siouan and other 

 stocks preying upon the buffalo were the most complicated on the con- 

 tinent. 



The Blackfeet do not make bows of the horn of the elk or of the 

 mountain sheep. Their country does not produce any wood suitable 

 for bows, and they obtain by barter the bow wood, or yellow wood 

 {Madura anrantiaca) from the river Arkansas. For their quivei s they 

 prefer the skin of the cougar {Felis co7icolor, Linn). Tlie tail hangs 

 down from the quiver, is trimmed with red cloth on the inner side, 

 embroidered with white beads and ornamented at the end or elsewhere 

 with strij)s of skin-like tassels. 



" I saw few lances among the Blackfeet, but umm war clubs which 

 they have taken from the Flatheads. Many have thick leather shields 

 painted green and red, and hung with feathers and other things." | 



All the Sioux tribes use a short arrow, with long shaftment bearing 

 three eagle feathers. The shafts were marked with the lightning fur- 

 rows, and streaked in different colors. The Sioux procured iron cen- 

 turies ago and substituted it for the stone head. One of the rarest 

 specimens in any museum is a Sioux arrow with a jasjer i)oint. 



Mr. Dorsey says tluit the Omaha use the following as their arrow- 

 measures: From the inner angle of the elbow to the tip of the middle 

 finger, and thence over the back of the hand to the wrist bone. 



"When in need of arrow points the Sioux Avoiild take his rawhide or 

 buckskin sack or bag and go in search of the above-mentioned stones; 

 when found would take another heavy stone, and by striking and break- 

 ing the stone, would gather the fragments that would serve for arrow 

 or spear points. Those flakes which required less work in trimming or 



*T. G. B. Lloyd, J. Anthrop. Inst., vol. iv, p. 28. 



t Catlin's Indian Gallery, Stnifhsonian Eeport, 1885, part ii, p. 148. 



X Consult Maximilian, Trav., 1843, p. 258. 



