ABORIGINAL CHIPPED STONE IMPLEMENTS OF NEW YORK 41 



Of the making of the bow and arrow something may be said later, 

 in connection with some peculiar curved scrapers, admirably adapted 

 for this work, but yet "too rare to have been commonly used. Capt. 

 Smith, again, says that the Virginia indians made their bows by 

 scraping them with shells, and the Iroquois may often have done 

 the same, as they used shells for knives. The arrow shaft was 

 straightened in several ways, and the Onondagas have not lost the 

 art yet. It was headed with almost any hard and sharp material, or 

 might be made entirely of wood. The arrow point might be fastened 

 merely with gum, in the cleft shaft, or be bound on with sinew or 

 thread. An Onondaga recently had a triangular stone arrow given 

 him to affix to a shaft. He at once cleft the shaft, inserted the stone, 

 took a piece of thin sinew, dexterously and neatly wound it about 

 the wood and stone, and the arrow was ready for deadly use. Differ- 

 ent nations used different arrows. Thus the Sasquehanocks had 

 stone points, shaped like a heart, an inch broad, and an inch and a 

 half or more long. It is probable that in this way Capt. Smith de- 

 scribed the indented triangular arrow-head, as the Sasquehanocks 

 were of the same family as the Iroquois. The latter used triangular 

 arrows almost exclusively. The force exerted by these simple 

 weapons was a matter of surprise to the colonists. 



Shields were everywhere in use among the Iroquois but soon 

 disappeared before firearms. Smith speaks highly of those of the 

 Massawomeks, who seem to have been either the Eries, or a nation 

 allied to them, and not the historic Iroquois, as many have supposed, 

 although of that great family. Their light targets were ' made of 

 little small sticks, woven betwixt strings of their hempe and silke 

 grasse, as is our cloth, but so firmly that no arrow can possibly 

 pierce them.' There was evidently nothing like these in Virginia, 

 and those he had and used were everywhere recognized at once, as 

 were their other arms. Champlain describes the armor of the Mo- 

 hawks in 1609, very briefly. * They were provided with arrow-proof 

 armor, woven of cotton thread and wood.' Corlaer saw a sham fight 

 among the Mohawks in 1634. 'Some' of them wore armor and 

 helmet that they make themselves of thin reeds and strings, so well 

 that no arrow nor axe can pass through to wound them.' Similar 

 passages might be quoted from others. 



