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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



VOL. 54. 



crude stone-age tools, was difficult; the procural of the wood itself 

 required exceptional labor, especially as the wedge was not known. 

 As among most American tribes, fire and the stone ax were the chief 

 agencies used in timbering. The bow was worked out from the rough 

 wood and finished by attrition on sandstone and with gritty rubbing 

 stones (pi. 45, fig. 1, Cat. No. 69532, U.S.N.M.). The curve in the 

 back of the bow is formed by heating and bending the wood. The 

 nocks are not deep. The string is of sinew looped at one end and 

 wound and half hitched to the bow at the other end. Most of the 

 bows are painted, which indicates their connection with religious ob- 

 servances. This has been the case with ceremonial offerings of bows, 

 etc., from ancient times. Arrows are made from sprouts of Rhus, 

 oak shoots or wild currant smoothly finished (pi. 45, figs. 2, 3, Cat. 

 Nos. 69,603; 84,318 U.S.N.M.), the triple feathering of hawk's plum- 

 age wrapped on with sinew. The shaft is 

 grooved, as was the general custom in America. 

 Reed shaft arrows have not been used by the 

 Hopi since their settlement in their present 

 location; but the reed, Phragmites comTnuivis^ 

 has almost disappeared from the southwestern 

 United States, and its extinction was gradual 

 up to the time of settlement and grazing, when 

 it passed away very rapidly. No Pueblo stone 

 pointed arrows exist, iron having superseded 

 them, and the stone points are frequently used 

 as charms (fig. 47). The bark was scraped off, 

 the rod ground and polished with standstone 

 abraders (shown in archeological collection), 

 straightened with a horn wrench (pi. 46, fig. 4), 

 feathered, the point set in, and the shaft 

 painted with yucca splint brush (pi. 46, fig. 1) 

 from a paint pot of four colors (pi. 46, fig. 5). The awl and primi- 

 tive basket for holding resin are also property of the arrow maker. 

 To protect the wrist from the recoil of the bowstring, a leather 

 wristlet is used (pi. 45, figs. 4, 5, Cat. No. 75700, U.S.N.M.). The 

 examples in the United States National Museum are made from 

 harness leather procured from the white man and have attached to 

 them plates of tin ornamented with pierced work or punching. 



It appears probable that lances were never used by the Hopi, or 

 if so, only to a slight extent. They have been observed among some 

 of the Pueblo tribes, who, it is thought, adopted this weapon from 

 the Spaniards. The lances referred to have iron heads, often bear- 

 ing the name of the maker and date. The iron-head lance of the 

 Comanche, Kiowa, and other plains tribes may have had as a proto- 

 type a shaft tipped with a chipped stone head, like those which are 



Fig. 47.— Stoke arrow used 

 as a chabm against ught- 



NING 



