ABORIGINAL USE OF WOOD IN NEW YORK 123 



Smith said, " He seemed the goodliest man that ever we beheld 

 . . . His arrows were five-quarters of a yard long." But, while 

 early writers speak of the excellent archery of the Indians, little is 

 said specifically of their bows, whence it may be inferred they were 

 much like those of Europe. 



Mr Morgan said, " The Indian bow was usually from 3^ to 4 

 feet in length." Of three Onondaga bows in the writer's hands, 

 one is 5 feet long and the other two a foot shorter. All are % of an 

 inch wide. Another of elaborate and unusual character, made by 

 an Onondaga for a friend, is wrapped with sinew in the contracted 

 center, but has undulating edges beyond this, being nearly 1% inches 

 wide. Figure 3 shows the modern Iroquois bow, and all Cham- 

 plain's pictures have the bow quite long. 



For 68 years the writer has known the arrow of the Onondagas 

 and seen them shoot with it. For their own purposes they often 

 make use of those which are without feathers, having an expanded 

 and rather blunt wooden head, continuous with the shaft and called 

 go-heS-kan o-je-ko'-hah. Figure 30 shows this, and it seems a 

 survival of early days, when it was used to stun small game, as it 

 is yet. The Onondagas say that the rustle of its fall through the 

 trees helps them regain it. The small number of arrowheads found 

 on Iroquois town sites of the last 300 years supports its antiquity. 

 For home use and small game it was probably the favorite arrow. 

 Larger stone points for larger game would naturally be used in 

 distant hunts. Mr Morgan figured but did not describe this arrow. 

 Figure 4, a, b, c, d, is from his work. That marked c was tipped 

 with hollow horn and made by an Oneida in Canada. All of his 

 figures include feathers, and on this point he said: 



The arrow was about 3 feet in length, and feathered at the small 

 end with a twist to make it revolve in its flight. . . The 

 English and Scottish archers feathered their arrows, but without this 

 peculiarity. Three feathers were also used by them, which were 

 set parallel with the arrow and with each other. But they were 

 set upon one side of the arrow at its three quarters, and in such a 

 way that the three parallel feathers formed obtuse angles with each 

 other. The Indian used but two feathers, which passed around the 

 opposite sides of the arrow in a twist, as shown in the figure. For 

 this purpose the feather was stripped off from the quill, and tied to 

 the arrow with sinew. Morgan, 1 : 296 



