200 THE POINT HARROW ESKIMO. 



The first mention of the Eskimo bow with sinew backing will be found 

 in Frobisher s account of his visit to Meta Incognita in 1577 : &quot;Their 

 bowes are of wood of a yard long, sinewed on the back with strong 

 sinewes, not glued too, but fast girded and tyed on. Their bowe strings 

 are likewise sinewes.&quot; 



Of the bow used at the straits of Fury and Hecla we have a most 

 excellent figure in Parry s Second Voyage (LM. opposite p. 550, Fig. 22), 

 and the most accurate description to be found in any author. It is, in 

 fact, as exact a description as could be made from an external examina 

 tion of the bow. From the figure the bow appears to have been almost 

 of the arctic type, having an unusual number of strands (sometimes 

 sixty, p. 511) which are not, however, twisted, but secured with a spiral 

 wrapping, as on southern bows. The backing is stopped to the handle, 

 but not otherwise seized. It appears to have been rather a large bow, 

 as Parry gives the length of one of their best bows, made of a single 

 piece of fir, as &quot;4 feet 8 inches&quot; (p. 510). &quot;A bow of one piece is, 

 however, very rare ; they generally consist of from two to five pieces 

 of bone of unequal lengths, fastened together by rivets and treenails&quot; 

 (p. 511). Parry also speaks of the use of wedges for tightening the 

 backing. Schwatka 2 speaks of the Netyllik of King Williams Land as 

 using bows of spliced pieces of musk-ox horn or driftwood, but gives 

 no further description of them. Ellis 3 describes the bow in use at Hud 

 son s Strait in 1740 as follows: 



Their greatest Ingenuity is shown in the Strnetnre of their I!ows, made commonly 

 of three Pieces of Wood, each making a part of the same Arch, very nicely and exactly 

 joined together. They are commonly of Fir or Larch, which the English there call 

 Juniper, and as this wants Strength and Elasticity, they supply both by bracing the 

 Back of the Bow with a kind of Thread or Line made of the Sinew of their Deer, and 

 the Bowstring of the same material. To make them draw more stiffly, they dip them 

 into Water, which causes both the Back of the Bow and the String to contract, and 

 consequently gives it the greater force. H 



Ellis s figure (plate opposite p. 132) shows a bow of the Tatar shape, 

 but gives no details of the backing, except that the latter appears to be 

 twisted. 



We have no published descriptions of the bows used in other regions. 



As far as 1 have been able to ascertain, the practice of backing the 

 bow with cords of sinew is peculiar to the Eskimo, though some Ameri 

 can Indians stiffen the bow by gluing flat pieces of sinew upon the 

 back. 



One tribe of Indians, the &quot;Loueheux&quot; of the Mackenzie district, 

 however, used bows like those of the Eskimos, but Sir Alexander Mac 

 kenzie 5 expressly states that these were obtained from the Eskimo. 



1 Hakluy fa Voyages, 1580, p. 628. 



Sciem p, vol. 4 , 98, ]&amp;gt;. 543. 



3 Voyage to Hudson s Hay, p. 138. 



4 Compare what I have already said about tin- backing beinf; put on wot. 



fi Voyages from Montreal . . . to the Kroy.tm and Paeitu: Ocoana, p. 48. 



