198 



THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



a, 



No. 72771 [234], from Sidaru (Fig. 180 and li), is a bow with l&amp;gt;ent 

 ends like the last, but all in one piece and smaller. Its length is 43A 

 inches and its greatest breadth 1J. The backing has only two cables, 

 and its chief peculiarity is in having the loose end of the last strand 

 twisted into one of the cables, while the seizing, of the same pattern as 

 in the last bow, is made of a separate piece. The workmanship of this 

 bow is particularly neat, and it is further 

 strengthened with strips of rawhide (the skin 

 of the bearded seal, split), under the backing. 

 The method of making the string is very inge 

 nious. It appears to have been made on the 

 bow, as follows: Having the bow sprung back 

 one end of a long piece of sinew twine was 

 made fast temporarily to the upper nock, leaving 

 an end long enough to finish off the bowstring. 

 The other end was carried round the lower nock 

 and the returning strand half-hitched round 

 the first snugly up to the nock, and then carried 

 round the upper nock and back again. This 

 was repeated, each strand being half-hitched 

 round all the preceding at the lower nock until 

 there were eight parallel strands, and an eye 

 fitted snugly to the lower nock. The bight was 

 then slipped off the upper nock, the end untied 

 and the whole twisted tight. This twisted 

 string is now about 2 inches too long, so the 

 upper eye is made by doubling over 2 inches 

 of the end and stopping it down with the free 

 end mentioned above, thus making a long eye 

 of seven strands. With the end, six similar 

 strands are added to the eye, each being 

 stopped to the twist with a half hitch. The 

 end is neatly tucked in and the strands of the 

 eye twisted tightly together. 



In my paper on Eskimo bows^already men 

 tioned, I came to the conclusion that the bows 

 formerly used by the Eskimo of western North 

 America and the opposite coast of Asia were 

 constructed upon three well defined types of 

 definite geographical distribution, and each easily recognized as a 

 development of a simple original type still to be found in Baffin Land 

 in a slightly modified form. These three types are: 



I. The Southern type, which was the only form used from the island 

 of Kadiak to Cape Itomanzoff, and continued in frequent use as far as 

 Norton Sound, though separated by no hard and fast line from 



II. The Arctic type, to which the bows just described belong, in use 



Flo. 180. Largo bow from 

 Sidaru. 



