Coup, chief of the Crows. Plenty Coup said both 

 of these arrows had killed buffalo in their time. I 

 wonder if either of them ever was shot from a bow 

 such as Beckwourth describes that most prized one 

 made from the horns of the mountain sheep. 



Bows from the old plains, wrapped in sinew, 

 made of elkhorn or of bois d'arc (the osage orange 

 wood) are not uncommon even yet in sportsmen's 

 dens, although they and the old war shields now 

 have become museum pieces. How would you like 

 to have to make a living with this bow from the 

 Crows, or this other from the Piutes, and these 

 arrows with heads peradventure filed out of hoop 

 iron? Hardly as good as the modern Springfield, 

 one would say. Yet with tools no better than these, 

 Indians killed practically all kinds of American 

 great game even, sometimes, the grizzly bear. 



There is something odd about the Indian bow, 

 whether from the most northerly or southerly parts 

 of the buffalo range. All the tribes made the bow 

 with one side flatter than the other when the bow 

 was strung. Why this form of the bow began and 

 persisted I have never been able to figure out, but 

 from Blackfoot to Digger you will see lack of 

 symmetry in the two sides of the strung bow. 



The savage hunter could not concern himself 

 much over the trajectory of his projectiles, but 



288 



