SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEKN UNITED STATES 577 



and skill drew back the cord with the greatest ease to a point behind the ear 

 and made such terrible and wonderful shots as we shall see presently. 



They make the cords of the bows from deerskin, taking a strip two finger- 

 breadths in width from the hide, running from the tip of the tail to the head. 

 After removing the hair they dampen and twist it tightly; one end they tie 

 to the branch of a tree and from the other they hang a weight of four or five 

 arroha^, and they leave it thus until it becomes about the thickness of the 

 larger strings of a bass-viol. These cords are extremely strong. In order to 

 shoot safely in such a manner that when the cord springs back it may not 

 injure the left arm, they wear as a protection on the inner side a half-bracer, 

 which covers them from the wrist to the part of the arm that is usually bled 

 (sangradura). It is made of thick feathers and attached to the arm with a 

 deerskin cord which they give seven or eight turns at the place where the cord 

 .springs back most strongly. (Garcilaso, 1723, pp. 6-7; Robertson, 1933, pp. 

 18-19.) 



The adornments lavished upon the bows at Talomeco have been 

 described already. 



Elvas extols the efficiency of Floridian bows to an almost equal 

 degree. It is unlikely that any of the bows were made of oak as 

 Garcilaso (1723, p. 7) supposes. At least there is no other reference 

 to the use of that kind of wood. 



Spark is on the right track when, in speaking of the Indians of 

 Florida, he says : 



Their bowes are made of a kind of Yew, but blacker than ours [probably the 

 black locust], and for the most part passing the strength of the Negros or 

 Indians, for it is not greatly inferior to ours. (Hakluyt, 1847-89, vol. 3, p. 613; 

 Swanton, 1922, p. 356.) 



Laudonniere agrees with Garcilaso as to the string : 



They make the string of their bow of the gut of the stag, or of a stag's skin, 

 which they know how to dress as well as any man in France, and with as 

 different sorts of colors. (Laudonniere, 1586, p. 7; Swanton, 1922, p. 356.) 



Hariot states that the bows of the coast people of Carolina were 

 of "Witch hazle," which Percy confirms, adding that their strings 

 were of leather (Smith, John, Tyler ed., 1907, p. 17; Hariot, 1893, 

 p. 34). Smith tells us that "they bring their bowes to the forme of 

 ours by the scraping of a shell," but Strachey who is apt to parallel 

 Smith, here diverges. 



The bowes are of some young plant, eyther of the locust-tree or of weech [witch 

 hazel], which they bring to the forme of ours by the scraping of a deare's hide 

 twisted. (Smith, John, Tyler ed., 1907, p. 105.) 



Beverley gives us another item bearing on the manufacture: 



They made their Bows of the Locust Treet, an excessive hard Wood when 

 it is dry, but much more easily cut when it is green, of which they always 

 took the advantage. (Beverley, 1705, bk. 3, p. 60.) 



Lawson speaking for the Carolina area, remarks : "Of this [locust] 

 the Indians made their choicest bows, it being very tough and flexi- 



464735—40 38 



