572 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



arrow shafts were made of reeds, but the latter tells us they were 

 longer than the arrows of other Indians and differed also in having 



nocks and feathers, which the other lacks, whereby they shoot very stedy: the 

 heads of the same are vipers teeth, bones of fishes, flint stones, piked points of 

 knives, which they hauing gotten of the French men, broke the same & put the 

 points of them in their arrowes heads: some of them haue their heads of siluer, 

 othersome that haue want of these, put in a kind of hard wood, notched, which 

 pierceth as fane as any of the rest. (French, 1875, p. 174; Hakluyt, 1847-89, 

 vol. 3, p. 613; S wanton, 1922, pp. 356-357.) 



Says Laudonniere, "they head their arrows with the teeth of fish, 

 which they work very finely and handsomely" (Laudonniere, 1586, p. 

 7;Swanton, 1922, p. 356). 



In Cushing's text, given above, mention is made of "arrows about 

 four feet in length, perfectly uniform, pointed with hard wood, or 

 of cane," but he immediately suggests that these may have been used 

 with spear throwers and not with bows. 



At a later date the Cusabo Indians were found employing reed 

 arrows pointed with sharp stones or fishbones (Swanton, 1922, p. 74). 



In eastern North Carolina, Barlowe found arrows "of small canes, 

 headed with a sharpe shell or tooth of a fish sufficient enough to kill a 

 naked man" (Burrage, 1906, p. 238). Hariot (1893, p. 36) speaks of 

 reed arrows, but says nothing about their points. Percy found the ar- 

 rows of the Virginia Indians "of Canes or Hasell, headed with very 

 sharpe stones, and are made artificially like a broad Arrow: other 

 some of their Arrowes are headed with the ends of Deeres homes, and 

 are feathered ver}^ artificially" (Percy m Narratives of Virginia, 

 Tyler ed., 1907, p. 17). Smith gives a more detailed account: 



Their arrowes are made, some of straight young sprigs, which they head with 

 bone some 2 or 3 inches long. These they use to shoot at squirrles on trees. An 

 other sort of arrowes they use, made of reeds. These are peeced with wood, headed 

 with splinters of christall or some sharpe stone, the spurres of a Turkey, or the 

 bill of some bird. For his knife, he hath the splinter of a reed to cut his feathers 

 in forme. ... To make the noch of his arrow hee hath the tooth of a Bever set 

 in a stlcke, wherewith he grateth it by degrees. His arrow head he quickly 

 maketh with a little bone, which he ever weareth at his bracer, of any splint of a 

 stone, or glasse in the form of a hart, and these they glew to the end of their 

 arrowes. With the sinewes of Deare, the tops of Deares homes boiled to a jelly, 

 they make a glew that will not dissolve in cold water. (Smith, John, Tyler ed., 

 1007, p. 102.) 



Strachey parallels this but his words are worth including: 



Their arrowes are made some of streight young spriggs, which they head with 

 bone, two or three inches long, and these they use to shoote at squirrells and all 

 kind of fowle. Another sort of arrowes they use made of reedes : those are peeced 

 with wood, headed with splinters of cristall or some sharp stone, with the spurrs 

 of a turkey cock, or the bill of some bird, feathered with a turkey's feather, which 

 with a knife (made of the splinter of a reed) which he will make as sharpe as a 

 surgeon's gamott [an incision knifel he cutts into forme, and with which knife, 

 also, he will joynt a deare, or any beast, shape his sandalls, buskins, mantell, etc. 



