554 BOWS AND ARROWS IN CENTRAL BRAZIL. 



concerning the material are not given by the collector. Only single 

 types like the Chaco arrow may be recognized through the material. 

 In the classification of bows through the cross section the material 

 would be of weight. 



Before offering some remarks on the characteristics of bow and arrow 

 types by regions, I shall seek briefly to describe South American bows 

 and arrows as a whole. 



Unlike the North American bows, which are generally small and 

 often made up of parts differing in material joined together, the South 

 American bows are all self-bows, that is, they are made of a single 

 piece. For the most part they are very large; only in the Guiana 

 region and the northwestern lands, as well as in the South, the Gran 

 Chaco, the Pampas, and in Terra del Fuego are smaller forms in use. 

 A certain similarity of the Chaco bow with that of the northern Llano 

 tribes, the Goajiro, is inexplicable. Further, in forest regions almost 

 throughout, excepting Guiana, large, powerful bows are in use, while 

 the smaller belong to open steppes. In this fact there is a contradic- 

 tion to the affirmation of Batzel concerning Africa, that the forest bows 

 are smaller than the steppe bows, since the contracted forest prevents 

 the use of the larger forms. On the contrary, among the Jauapery, 

 who live in the forest region on the lower Negro, bows are found, ac- 

 cording to Pfaff, 3 meters long. The South American bows are made 

 with the greatest care, so that in the manufacture the peculiarities of 

 the materials are utilized to their utmost extent. The form is, with 

 rare exceptions, symmetrical. The curvature is not pronounced and 

 symmetrical, but sometimes through a little bulge of the middle a 

 slight double curve is effected. Bows are neatly wrapped with liana 

 bast or with yarn and cotton string, partially, as a general thing, and 

 frequently thus to old bows an artistic touch is given and beautiful 

 patterns developed. Feather ornaments are also often added to the 

 bow. The plain bows exhibit, as Batzel has pointed out, a decided 

 similarity with those of the Melanesians. 



The size of arrows is naturally in relation with that of the bows. The 

 steppe peoples and the Fuegians have the smallest arrows. They also 

 exhibit much care in their finish, and adorn them greatly by means 

 of wrappings upon the joints where the several parts are united. The 

 arrows of the steppes are made especially with reed shafts having 

 wooden points, those of upper South America have mostly in the 

 reed shaft a fore shaft inserted, which carries the point. 



The material of the shaft over the entire middle region is mostly the 

 widely distributed knotless Uba reed (Gynerium saccharoides), and 

 esi>ecially in the East the more slender Cambayuva reed. The reed 

 shaft of the Chaco tribes is similar to the Cambayuva. Only among 

 the Fuegians and a few other tribes in special kinds of arrows is wood 

 used for shafts. The points are of wood, at times smooth and again 

 with rows of opposite barbs, or from long, sharp splints of bamboo, from 



