564 



KEPOET 1892. 



Since the introduction of firearms amongst the Indians, the old bows 

 and arrows have in great part disappeared. Some of the children use 

 them to shoot birds, and here and there may be still seen a few old men 

 with bow and quiver slung across their backs (the quiver being made of 

 skin, and often profusely ornamented with beads, strips of fur, &c.). In 

 using the bow the Kootenays hold it sometimes horizontally, sometimes 

 perpendicularly. The arrow rests between the first and second fingers of 

 the left hand, which grasps the bow- stick, while the notch-end of the 

 arrow is held between the thumb and first finger of the right hand. 



The bow-stick (dqJdld'huo) was made of cedar {itsEiul'Et, Thuya 

 gigantea) or maple {mitshik, Acer glabrum). The bow-string (t'dwu'm'kd) 



The bow is 28i inches 



Fig. 2.- 



-Bow and arrow (with flint point) made by Indian. 



long. 



was made of the sinews (dqkinJc'd'tlka) of various animals (chiefly of the 

 deer), and sometimes of strips of skin. The arrows used for shooting 

 birds were entirely of wood, with a thick, blunt end. Other arrows 

 (dqk) had points (ndtlko'tsap) of bone or stone, and, latterly, of iron 

 obtained from the whites. The stone arrowhead (ndtlko'tsap) was of flint 

 (dqkd'tsko) obtained by the Lower Kootenays from a mountain about 

 twenty miles from Barnard, B.C., and by the Upper Kootenays of the 

 reo-ion about Fort Steele from the vicinity of Sheep Creek. The point of 

 the arrow is called dqkink-d'kd, the feather dqk'd'n'kd, the notch 

 dqk-d'n'k-dk, the quiver idts'dk, or d'qkank'd'nam, the whole bow and 

 arrows dqko'k'mdtUhet t'd'ivo. Long ago the Lower Kootenays are said to 

 have caught ducks by means of a pole, to which was attached a net made 

 of the fibre of the plant known as d'qkotla'kpis. The Indians used to 

 lasso the 'fool hen' (kld'wdts) by means of nooses made of the same 

 material. 



It was customary for the hunter to distribute the product of his 

 prowess amongst his relatives and friends, and this hospitality was almost 

 a law of the tribe. It is not quite certain whether an Indian would kill a 

 bear or a fish into which he thought one of the spirits of his departed 

 relatives had gone. 



Fishing (ndtlu'ktlauwa'te, he fishes). 



The Lower Kootenays are, to a great extent, canoe and fishing Indians. 

 The Upper Kootenays, for the most part, on account of their situation, 

 are less given to travelling by water or to the procuring of fish, except- 

 ing salmoji (sfiwd'kEmo), as a food supply. Many methods of catching 

 fish are in use, of which the following are the chief : — 



Befoi-e the advent of the whites, the Indians fished with a hook 

 (tco'tvdk) made of a bit of bone fastened to a piece of wood, the whole 

 havino' much the shape of an ordinary hook. To this was attached a line 



