492 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1926 
the bulb-shaped nock; taking a strand of sinew, he wound one end 
once around the shaft and the feather near the nock. He then took 
the other end of the sinew between his teeth and holding the strand 
taut, he heated the glue a little over the fire and rubbed it on the 
sinew; he then put the second feather on the shaft which he gave 
one turn and the sinew held the feather; he treated the third feather 
in the same manner; then he thinned the end of the strand of sinew 
by scraping it with a knife and putting the thinned end of the strand 
around the shaft; he smoothed it down with his finger. Then he 
dipped the sinew in a little pile of white powder, made of burnt 
gypsum, for the purpose of cleaning, whitening, and drying it. 
Quail held up the arrow shaft with the drooping feathers and said 
to me: “ My grandson, this sinew will do two things at the same 
time, it will hold the ends of the feathers on the shaft and support 
the nock of the arrow so that the bowstring will not split it.” He 
then glued the under part of the aftershaft of one of the feathers 
and neatly stuck it on the arrow shaft, the other two feathers he 
treated in the same way, and all three feathers lay neatly on the 
arrow shaft, equi-distant apart. 
The old man, addressing my father, said: “ My son, I see that you 
have two kinds of the little ornamental feathers for the lower part 
of the feathers, one white and the other red, which shall I put on?” 
“The red,” my father replied, and the old man remarked, “Ah! the 
color of the red dawn.” Quail took a shred of the soaked sinew, 
squeezed the water out of it, wound one end once around the arrow 
shaft and the quill part of the feathers, near the web, then taking 
between his teeth the other end of the sinew, he glued it, then put a 
little red downy feather in the space between the large feathers and 
gave the arrow shaft a slight turn; in the second space he put a little 
red feather, gave the arrow shaft another slight turn, and treated 
the third space in the same manner, then quickly covered the quill 
part of the arrow feathers with the glued sinew which he smoothed 
down with his finger; after that he dipped the sinew in the pile of 
powdered gypsum. Then, turning to me, he said: “ My grandson, 
always overlap the ends of the quills with glued sinew when you 
make arrows, and don’t forget to dip the sinew in the white powder. 
Be neat, always, in your work.” 
The old man held the arrow at arm’s length to examine his work, 
while his face brightened with pleasure. Then, speaking to my 
father, he said: “ My son, the glue works quickly, would you mind 
telling me what you made it of?” My father replied: “The glue 
was made from the shell of a soft-shelled turtle.” 
The slits for the shanks of the arrowheads, which were made of 
iron, had already been made in the shafts, and the gluing of shanks, 
