APPENDIX n.i 



MAKING OF ARROWPOINTS DESCRIBED BY EXPLORERS AND 



TRAVELERS. 



Cutliii- thus describes the Apache mode of making flint arrow- 

 l)oints: 



Like most of the tribes west of and iu the Rocky Mountains they manufacture 

 the lihules of their spears and points for their arrows of tiints, and also of obsidian, 

 whi»h is scattered over those volcauic regions west of the mountains; and, like 

 other tribes, they guard as a profound secret the mode by which the tiints and 

 obsidiau are broken into the shapes they require. * * ^ 



Every tribe has its factory in which these arrowheads are made, and in those 

 only certain adepts are able or allowed to make them for the use of the tribe. 

 Erratic bowlders of flint are collected (and sometimes brought an immense 

 distance) and broken with a sort of sledge hammer made of a roniuled pebble of 

 hornstoue set in a twisted withe, holding the stone and forming a handle. * * * 

 The nuister workman, seated on the ground, lays one of these flakes on the palm of 

 his left hand, holding it firmly down with two or more fingers of the same hand, 

 and with his right hand, between the thumb and two forefingers, places his chisel 

 (or punch) on the point that is to be broken ofi:'; and a cooperator (a striker) 

 sitting in front of him, with a mallet of very hard Avood, strikes the chisel (or 

 punch) on the upper end, flaking the flint oft' on the under side, below each pro- 

 jecting point that is struck. The flint is then turned and chipped in the same 

 manner from the opposite side; and so turned and chipped until the required shape 

 and dimensions are obtained, all fractures being made on the palm of the hand. 



In selecting a flake for the arrowhead a nice judgment must be used, or the 

 attempt will fail. A flake with two opposite parallel, or nearly parallel, planes is 

 found, and of the thickness required for the center of the arrowpoint. The first 

 chipping reaches near to the center of these planes, but without quite breaking it 

 away, and each chipping is shorter and shorter, until the shape and the edge of the 

 arrowpoint are formed. 



The yielding elasticity of the paim of the hand enables the chip to come off 

 without breaking the body of the flint, which would be the case if they were 

 broken on a hard substance. These i)eople have no metallic instruments to work 

 with, and the instrument (punch) which they use I was told was a piece of bone; 

 but on examining it I found it to be a substance much harder, made of the tooth 

 (incisor) of the sperm whale or sea lion, which are often stranded on the coast of 

 the Pacific. This punch is about 6 or 7 inches iu length and 1 inch in diameter, 

 with one rounded side and two ])lane sides, therefore presenting one acute and two 

 obtuse angles to suit the points to be broken. 



This operation is very curious, both the holder and the striker singing, and the 

 strokes of the mallet given exactly in time with the music, and with a sharp and 

 rebounding blow, iu which, the Indians tell us, is the great medicine (or mystery) 

 of the operation. 



I See p. 884. 



^ Last Rambles amongst the Indians, pp. 187-90. 



985 



