BOWS AND ARROWS IN CENTRAL BRAZIL. 553 



more given up the bow, since as riders they can not conveniently use 

 it. In fighting on foot at the time of Dobrizhoffer the bow was always 

 the favorite weapon. Also the tribes that are now completely seden- 

 tary, which practice hunting along with agriculture only for amuse- 

 ment, exercise still the greatest care upon the preparation of this weapon 

 and know how to use it with skill. In their sagas the bow and the 

 arrow still play an important role. They are regarded almost as sacred 

 and are frequently used as cult objects. If a people through constant 

 association with culture exchanged their bows and arrows for other 

 weapons, then the children kept up the old reminiscences and held on 

 to the bow and arrow as playthings. We can thus appreciate the 

 interest which a South American Indian feels when foreign bows and 

 arrows are brought to his notice. He is accustomed to recognize the 

 tribe by its arrow. I therefore indorse the position of Von den Steinen 1 

 when he says, "just as in comparative philology, a comparative arrow 

 study may be conducted," as a rule for the resulting ethnographic 

 grouping. This position has full force only when the difference of time 

 between the arrival of different collections is taken into consideration, 

 since, as has been already said, the ethnographic characteristics have 

 been subject to great variations. 



It can not then be wondered at that in the general distribution of 

 bows and arrows so great a diversity of form exists, which makes 

 possible a grouping for a fundamental study. This grouping demands 

 again the separation of forms according to specific marks of structure. 

 Of great importance in the distribution of the arrow appears to be the 

 feathering, which seems to be capable of unlimited variation. There 

 may be also bestowed a great deal of care on the fastening of the 

 feather, on the wrappings of the shaft with thread, or upon the manner 

 of fitting the feather. Moreover, the wrapping of the feathered end 

 or shaftment offers excellent opportunity to preserve certain textile 

 patterns, perhaps the one remaining survival of the old tribal peculi- 

 arity. Besides the feathering, the fastening of the point to the shaft, 

 or of the point to the foreshaft, affords a safe datum for discriminating. 

 The shape of the point also furnishes a guide for differentiations, how- 

 ever generally the varietal marks of the point and shaft adjust them- 

 selves with those of the feathering, so that the last may be taken as a 

 basis for classification. The dimensions of the arrow are not directly 

 useful as a means of separation, although individual tribes are char- 

 acterized by the measurements of their weapons. Yet there are not 

 seldom within a single tribe differences of half a meter in the lengths 

 of the % same sort of arrow. The choice of material depends chiefly on 

 natural surroundings which a tribe encounters from place to place. It 

 could, therefore, through identification of material and the botanical 

 proof of the source of a plant, be shown that an arrow belonged to a 

 certain group 5 unfortunately this is not possible where accurate data 



1 Unter den Naturvolkern, Central-Brasiliens, page 229. 



