200 THE POINT BARROW 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:! “ 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.” 
Of the bow used at the straits of Fury and Hecla we have a most 
excellent figure in Parry’s Second Voyage (PI. 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 ‘4 feet 8 inches” (p. 510). “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” 
(p. 511). Parry also speaks of the use of wedges for tightening the 
backing. Schwatka? speaks of the Netyilik of King Williams Land as 
using bows of spliced pieces of musk-ox horn or driftwood, but gives 
no further description of them. Ellis* describes the bow in use at Hud- 
sows Strait in 1746 as follows: 
Their greatest Ingenuity is shown in the Structure of their Bows, 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.* 
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 I have been able to ascertain, the practice of backing the 
bow with cords of sinew is peculiar to the Eskimo, though some Ameri- 
van Indians stiffen the bow by gluing flat pieces of sinew upon the 
back. 
One tribe of Indians, the “ Loucheux” of the Mackenzie district, 
however, used bows like those of the Eskimos, but Sir Alexander Mae- 
kenzie® expressly states that these were obtained from the Eskimo. 
1Hakluyt’'s Voyages, 1589, p. 628. 
2Science, vol. 4 , 98, p. 543. 
3 Voyage to Hudson's Bay, p. 138. 
4Compare what I have already said about the backing being put on wet. 
®Voyages from Montreal . . . tothe Frozen and Pacific Oceans, p. 48. 
