4 Kas BIRKET-SMITH. 
altogether Eskimo bow from ‘Deer Horn (Athapascan)”1 is due to the 
writer’s having confused the Etechesotinne or ‘‘Deer Horn mountaineers” 
with a small Eskimo tribe at Coronation Gulf, which FRANKLIN, having 
regard to their proper name of Nagyugtormiut, calls Deer Horn?. 
The Eskimo bows form a well-defined group, albeit not restricted 
to peoples of Eskimo descent. They are powerful weapons, repre- 
senting a considerable degree of developement, and it is thus not sur- 
prising that they should be sought after and procured from time to 
time by adjacent Indian tribes such as the Loucheux® and Tlingit, 
who themselves make bows of the plain type. In Asia, also, 
they have, together with Eskimo industrial methods generally, made 
their appearance among the coast-dwelling Chukchee® and Koryak 
tribes 5. 
Imitations of a more independent character are also found, as for 
instance among the Tlingit and Nahane Indians’. There is moreover, 
in the Ethnographical Collection of our National Museum, a specimen 
(Hb 115) from the Knaiakhotana (another Athapascan tribe of South 
Alaska): a longbow of the usual Canadian form, but with a backing 
of sinew thread, leaving no doubt as to influence of the Eskimo 
model. And finally, traces of similar influence may also at times be 
found among the highly developed compound bows of the Tunguse 
and Yakute tribes, as for instance when bound with lashing and 
hide thongs®. 
The Eskimo bows themselves comprise various localised types, 
the distribution and mutual relations of which have, however, only 
been investigated in the case of the western regions®. True we find, 
in the work of so early a writer as BALFOUR, an observation to the 
effect that the bows of the eastern Eskimo exhibit a lower degree of 
developement than those of the western tribes!®; Мовросн, however, 
who has studied the latter, mentions but one of the eastern forms. 
The West Greenland" backed bow has already been fully described 
Mason, Orig. of Inv. p. 272. 
FRANKLIN, p. 354. 
MACKENZIE, p. 48. 
NIBLACK, p. 286. 
Bocoras, p. 152. 
JOCHELSON, p. 560. 
Boas, N. W. tribes. р. 563. — Мовросн, Esk. Bows, р. 315. 
ADLER, p. 21. 
Мовросн, Esk. Bows, р. 307 f. — It is therefore incorrect to reckon only 
three types, (е. =. Scuurz, р. 347, and ВунАам р. 83) or four (Mason, Bows, 
p. 643). 
BALFOUR, p. 221. 
11 According to the Danish terms generally in use, “West Greenland” is em- 
ployed only to denote the colonised part of the coast, which again falls into 
two inspectorates “North” and “South Greenland”. The former is thus 
not, as various foreign writers make it, identical with the Cape York District. 
C2 co 1 aoa uo = о в = 
1 
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