SwANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UMTED STATES 579 



According to my Alabama informant, bows were made of cedar, 

 ironwood, pine, dogwood, and still other woods, but he regarded 

 cedar bows as the best. Bowstrings were of cowhide, skin from the 

 loins of a deer, and buckskin and were cut out by the usual spiral 

 process. He thought that in former times they had probably been 

 made of bakca, bass, or slippery elm bark. He had never seen a bow 

 with sharply bent ends, and my Creek informant stated that his 

 people did not make these, though he had seen them in use by the 

 Indians on the Plains. For the manufacture of bow strings, see 

 also pages 448-449. 



The Natchez bows, according to Du Pratz, were made of "acacia 

 wood [evidently the black locust] which is hard and easy to split." 

 Cords were of the bark of trees or steeped and twisted sinew (Le Page 

 du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, p. 167; Swanton, 1911, p. 58). 



West of the Mississippi, the one great source of bow material was 

 the Osage orange, which also bears the significant name of bois d'arc. 

 This was especially abundant in the country of the Caddo Indians who 

 trafficked with it as far as the Quapaw Indians at the mouth of 

 Arkansas River and westward to the Pueblos of New Mexico (Margry, 

 1875-86, vol. 3, p. 412 ; Harrington, J. P., 1916, p. 68) . 



Wrist guards were probably in general use. Garcilaso has already 

 been quoted. 



A bark wrist guard is mentioned and figured by Le Moyne, Smith 

 speaks of "shooting gloves and bracers", and Strachey says that this 

 bracer was "commonly of some beast's skynne, eyther of the woolf, 

 badger, or black fox, etc." (Le Moyne, 1875, p. 10, pi. 14 ; Swanton, 1922, 

 p. 357 ; Narr. Early Va., Tyler ed., 1907, pp. 66, 69, 172 ; Strachey, 1849, 

 p. 106; and pi. 67 herein). This is not mentioned farther west, the use 

 of the bow having passed out rapidly for the heavier sort of work, 

 but my Creek and Alabama informants both remembered that a cow- 

 hide guard was used for this purpose, probably like the one figured 

 by Speck (1909, fig. 3) . The Creek name for this was kapalka. A type 

 of bow in use by the Chitimacha had such sharply bent ends that a 

 wrist guard would seem to have been superfluous (Swanton, 1911, p. 

 347). 



Quivers are seldom mentioned. They were usually made of skin. 

 (Swanton, 1922, p. 357; Smith, John, Tyler ed., 1907, p. 45; Adair, 

 1775, p. 457.) Le Challeux states that the Timucua ordinarily kept 

 their arrows in their hair, from which they could withdraw them to 

 discharge with great rapidity (Gaffarel, 1875, p. 461 ; Swanton, 1922, 

 p. 347). 



So rapidly did guns replace bows and arrows as the offensive weapon 

 of major importance to be used in war, and to a less degree in hunting, 



