THE SLING, BOW, AND OTHER WEAPONS 135 



a deer at 300 yards. The Indian buffalo hunter often drove his 

 arrow through the huge beast, firing from horseback as he rode 

 beside the herd. In such famous battles as Crecy and Agincourt, 

 the lance, sword, and bow were the weapons in use, but the last 

 was the most important. So thickly did the arrows fly that 

 armored knights were in a perfect storm of them, and woe betide 

 the warrior whose armor offered the slightest opening for the 

 expert bowman. 



The manufacture of the bow and arrow was a craft by itself. 

 The weapons needed to be made with as much nicety and as 

 much care in the selection of the material as the modern firearm. 

 The bow was usually made of several strips of wood glued together 

 and not infrequently was made in parts, a central portion and 

 end pieces. Sometimes several different kinds of wood entered 

 into the composition of the bow, but the best of the English 

 weapons were made of yew, carefully selected, thoroughly sea- 

 soned, and free from all blemish. The bow, when strung, was 

 curved, the string standing about 6 inches from the middle of 

 the bow. The arrow was also made with great care and precision. 

 The best of them were perfectly straight, uniform in diameter 

 throughout, tipped with a metal point, and feathered at the 

 opposite end so as to make them fly true. Peacock feathers were 

 generally used for this part of the arrow as the web of the feather 

 is tough and retains its shape well. 



The Indian arrow-maker was an exceedingly skilful crafts- 

 man. It was a hard day's work to make one arrow. The stems 

 of the reed, Phragmites vulgaris, straight willow wands, the 

 so-called white cedar or arbor vitae, the red cedar, striped maple, 

 and many other woods were used. The material was carefully 

 selected, seasoned with care, scraped down to uniform size, 

 straightened by laying on a hot, grooved stone and bending to 

 take out slight irregularities. The tip of chipped stone or of 

 fire-hardened wood was fastened in with sinew cord and glue 

 and the feathers were applied to the base. Three half-feathers 

 were bound on equidistant from each other by sinew cord or 



