550 BOWS AND ARROWS IN CENTRAL BRAZIL. 



encouragement rendered. Moreover, I am obliged to Professor von den 

 Steineu, to Dr. Ehrenreich, and to Dr. Richard Andree for friendly 

 assistance. 



A large number of museums on the Rhine, in Switzerland, France, and 

 Italy, which I had not time to visit, I thank for their promises to ren- 

 der complete my investigations in the future. The rich material of the 

 Leipzig museum was unfortunately at the time, through want of space, 

 packed up and not accessible, yet it is hoped that shortly after the 

 completion of the new museum building it will be possible to make 

 studies there also. 



In the study of material stored up in museums one must proceed 

 with the greatest prudence in deciding the matter of locality, for the 

 beginner in this field, who has no knowledge concerning the associa- 

 tions of a specimen, makes false and confused reports. There exist 

 only small collections whose data have any claim to confidence; the 

 great majority of objects are either unknown or insufficiently or falsely 

 labeled. Very many pieces which have been brought together from 

 some estate, or through collectors on the coast, far from their origin, 

 bear absolutely untrue information regarding their provenience. There 

 are many pieces that migrate down a river, even to a trade station near 

 the mouth, and then come into the possession of a traveler who knows 

 only the name of the last place or of the river. Other specimens that 

 the traveler really got from the natives represent not indeed the true 

 ethnographic type of that tribe, since these also could have come 

 into the possession of a tribe through traffic or as booty, as Lucioli 

 narrates of the Ucayale tribes — that slaves among them worked in their 

 own manner. However, by means of a careful comparison of speci- 

 mens in question with well-identified material it is possible to find out 

 with some certainty their coordination. 



In the accessible literature are only a few modern works of any value 

 for furthering this investigation, since the majority of travelers, par- 

 ticularly older ones, have often some other object than the promotion of 

 ethnography, and consequently give only brief notices on ethnographic 

 subjects. Only in the rarest cases do they devote themselves to a 

 detailed description of weapons and tools of a tribe with whom they 

 came in contact. For that reason are to be found abundantly in differ- 

 ent accounts of the same tribe contradictory statements, so that even 

 in the utilization of such notices one must use the utmost caution and 

 critical discrimination. 



Unfortunately it was not possible for me to identify the substances 

 used in the manufacture of bows and arrows, by which I might have 

 had better data for the fixing of the locality and for proving also the 

 craft marks. A botanist skilled in South American flora, to whom I 

 referred a single little sample of wood for microscopic investigation, 

 declared that among the endless number of South American species of 

 trees he could render assistance only through the leaves or the Howers. 



