196 THE POINT BARROW ESKIMO. 
the Eskimo earried to its highest degree of efficiency.' It was of what 
T have called the “Arctic type,” namely, a rather short bow of spruce, 
from 43 to 52 inches in length, nearly elliptical in section, but flatter on 
the back than on the belly, and slightly narrowed and thickened at the 
handle. The greatest breadth was usually about 14 inches and the 
thickness at the handle about three-fourths of an inch. The ends were 
often bent up as in the Tatar bow, and were sometimes separate pieces - 
mortised on. Strength and elasticity was given to the brittle spruce 
by applying a number of strands of sinew to the back of the bow in 
such a way that drawing the bowstring stretched all these elastic cords, 
thus adding their elasticity to that of the wood. This backing was 
always a continuous piece of a three-ply braid of sinew, about the size 
of stout pack thread, and on a large bow often 40 or 50 yards long. It 
began, as on all Eskimo bows which I have been able to examine (ex- 
MECC Pit Mii 
b 
Fia. 177.—Boy’s bow from Utkiavwin. 
cept those from St. Lawrence Island and the mainland of Siberia— 
my “western type”), with an eye at one end of the cord looped over 
one nock of the bow, usually the upper. The cord was then laid on the 
back of the bow in long strands running up and down and round the 
nocks, as usual on the other types of bow, but after putting on a num- 
ber of these, began running backward and forward between the bends 
(if the bow was of the Tatar shape), or between corresponding points 
on a straight bow, where they were fastened with complicated hitches 
around the bow in such a way that the shortest strands came to the 
top of the backing, which was thus made to grow thicker gradually 
toward the middle of the bow, where the greatest strength and elas- 
ticity were needed. When enough strands had been laid on they 
were divided into two equal parcels and twisted from the middle into 
two tight cables, thus greatly increasing the tension to be overcome in 
drawing the bow. These cables being secured to the handle of the 
bow, the end of the cord was used to seize the whole securely to the 
bow. 
This seizing and the hitches already mentioned served to incorporate 
the backing very thoroughly with the bow, thus equalizing the strain 
and preventing the bow from cracking. This made a very stiff and 
powerful bow, capable of sending an arrow with great force. We were 
told by a reliable native that a stone-headed arrow was often driven by 
1See the writer's paper on the subject of Eskimo bows in the Smithsonian Report for 1884, Part I, 
pp. 307-316, 
