676 NORTH AMERICAN BOWS, ARROWS, AND QUIVERS. 



a sliort piece of antler i)recisely similar to those Avhich I collected at 

 Point Barrow. The work is hekl in the left hand on a pad and Haked 

 ott" by pressure with a tool in the right hand in exactly the same man- 

 ner as 1 found the Innuits doing in northern Alaska. 



"The bows made by these people are effective for game up to 50 or 

 75 yards, and Avould inflict a serious Avound at 100 yarcls. At 50 yards 

 the arrows will penetrate a. deer from 5 to 10 inches. 1 never heard of 

 one passing entirely through a deer.* 



"Eells says that "'bows and arrows are used at present by the Twana 

 in Washington state only as playthings, and are very poor; but form- 

 erly they were very common. The bows were about 3 feet long, and 

 were made of yew wood, the strings of sinews or the intestines of rac- 

 coons. The arrows were about 2J feet long, were made of cedar, with 

 feathered shafts, and points of stone, and of nails, after they obtained 

 them; and the quiver of wolf skin. Arrow-heads are sometimes made 

 of brass or iron, 2 or 3 inches long, half an inch wide, and very thin, 

 and also of very hard wood, 5 inches long, and round. Sometimes, for 

 birds, they are nmdc of iron-wood, about 5 inches long, with two prongs, 

 one of them being half an inch shorter than the other. "t 



According" to Capt. Wilkes the Klamet bows and ariows^ are made 

 the tirst of yew about 3 feet long, flat, li to 2 inches wide, backed with 

 sinew and painted. The arrows are over 30 inches long, some of close- 

 grained wood, a species of Spiraea, others of reed. Feathers are 5 to 8 

 inches long. The barbed head of obsidian is inserted in a fore shaft 3 

 to 5 inches long. This is left in the wound. Shallow blood channels 

 are sometimes cut in the shaft. The bow is held horizontally, braced 

 by the thumb of the left hand and drawn by the thumb and three lin- 

 gers of right hand. The chest is thrown back and the right leg for- 

 ward in shooting. Quivers are of deer, raccoon, or Avild-cat skins.J 



The Clallam bows were short and small, nuide of yew. The arrows 

 were small and pointed with bone or iron.§ The Clallanis are one of 

 the Salishan tribes from whom Wilkes gathered manj'^ bows and 

 arrows, now in the iSIational Museum. The arrow shafts are of cedar, 

 and have a large, bulbous nock, wra])ped with birch bark. Some of 

 them have two-barbed points of wood, bone, or metal. 



Bows of the Shush wap were formerly made chiefly of wood of the 

 juniper {Juniperxs oecideiitaJis), named poontlp. They were also some- 

 times made of yew {Taxus hrcvifolia), named skin-ik, though this tree 

 is scarcely to be found in the Shushwap country. It is reported how- 

 ever to grow far up in the North Thompson Valley. The bow was often 

 covered on its outer surface with the skin of a rattlesnake, which was 

 glued on in the same manner which was customary among some of the 

 tribes of the Great Plains. Arrows were made of the wood of the serv- 

 ice berry. Arrow-heads and spear-heads were made of various kinds 

 of stone, always chipped. || 



* P. H. Ray. 



tRev. M. Eells, Hayden'a Bull., 1877, 3, pp. 78-79. 



ICf. Wilkeii, XarraUve, vol. v., p. 23[). 



§ Wilkes, Xurrative, IV, 291). 



II " People of IJritisli Columbia," Q, M. Dawson, p. 17, 



