24 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVII I, 



poles were harnessed to a dog, the lower ends dragging on the 

 ground. The two poles were connected by sticks or slats, on 

 which the load was packed. Later, horse-travois were made. 

 These have now gone out of use among the Arapaho, but are 

 sometimes used by the Gros Ventres, who lash a loosely 

 netted frame to the two poles. Among the Assiniboine even 

 dog-travois are still used (1901) by old people. The Arapa- 

 ho had light cages of willows in which children were trans- 

 ported on travois. There is still a tradition of the time before 

 there were horses. Some say that horses were first obtained 

 from the whites, some that wild horses were caught. Dogs 

 were not used for hunting. 



Knives were formerly made of a narrow piece of the shoul- 

 der-blade of a buffalo, or of flint. For handles, the spines of 

 bufEalo vertebrae were used. Large tendons were used to 

 wrap together blade and handle. As this became dry, it con- 

 tracted. Hide-scrapers had their blades fastened in the same 

 way to a handle made of the spine of a buffalo vertebra ; or 

 sometimes the blade was inserted in a slit in the handle. 

 When bone knives were worn down, they were used for awls. 



Fire was made by striking two stones together. Subse- 

 quently a piece of steel was used with flint. For tinder, dry, 

 pithy Cottonwood was used, which was kept in a horn. The 

 fire-drill was also known. It was rubbed by hand. Sticks 

 of siitcinawaxu, a plant or shrub growing on the prairie, were 

 used because very hard. The point had three sides. Buffalo- 

 dung was used for tinder. 



Bows are said sometimes to have been backed with five 

 strips or layers of sinew; when made of cedar, they were 

 covered with sinew on both sides. Iron for arrows and spear- 

 points was first obtained from the Mexicans. Native copper 

 was not used. There were some arrows with detachable fore- 

 shafts or heads made of bone. Arrow-points, usually of flint, 

 were sometimes made from the last rib of a buffalo. The 

 bow and arrow are said to have been invented by the man 

 who made the first knives; also by the father of the mythical 

 twin monster-destroyers. 



When a young man wants arrows, he secures the materials 



