488 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
of bows to make a bow as it should be made. There are only two 
Omaha men living who can be called bow makers.” ‘The young man 
gave me the names of these old men; one was a stranger to me, but 
the other one I knew very well. 
The Omaha bow maker, like the medicine man, has to be cere- 
monially approached, therefore I had to send a special messenger 
to make known to him my wishes. The old man for whom I sent did 
not come to see me for about two days, and when he did come he 
brought a bow partially finished. He apologized for not coming at 
once but explained that he thought I might be in a hurry to have 
the work finished so he had started it before coming. He said: “I 
feel honored in being your choice of a bow maker. I used to make 
your father’s bows. He always liked them long and heavy. There 
are only two bow makers now living and I am one of them.” 
The old man was putting the finishing touches to the bow when the 
other bow maker just happened to come in. My man handed the 
finished bow to the visitor’who took it with a smile and caressed it 
by running his hands over its smooth surface. “What a beautiful 
piece of wood it is.” Then, after examining it critically, he said, 
Fig. 1.—Omaha bow 
“Tf it ever breaks it will be right here,” pointing to a weak spot 
midway between the grip and the top. “The rule is,” continued the 
visitor, “that where there has been a knot, that spot must be left 
‘thick’. I notice another mistake, one that is commonly made; the 
neglect to blunt the edges of the nocks, for sharp edges endanger the 
cord.” He meant that the sharp edges of the nock wears the cord 
by friction, causing it to break. My bow maker accordingly made 
a few slight cuts with his sharp knife along the edges of the nocks 
to blunt them, and the bow was finished. Then my bow maker asked 
for a bit of grease. This I supplied and he greased the “breast ” of 
the bow at the upper and lower parts. The upper part he held over 
the fire and when it became hot, he bent it with his foot and held it 
until it cooled. “That was nicely done,” the visitor said, “but I 
would not put so much curve at the lower end of the bow.” 
From these two old men I learned that there were three choices of 
wood for the bow, namely, the ash, the white elm, and the ironwood. 
These three kinds of wood take on polish and do not “ turn over” as 
they expressed it, which means that they do not warp badly when 
exposed to wet weather. The wood that the bow maker likes best to 
work upon is the young ash that was killed by a prairie fire, because 
the wood is then thoroughly seasoned and set, so that dampness and 
