BOWS AND ARROWS IN CENTRAL BRAZIL. 555 



bone, from spines of the ray fish and in later times of iron. Stone 

 points were, indeed, originally in vogue over the whole area, and have 

 held their own only among the most southern and the most northern 

 tribes, Central Americans and Fuegians. Poisoned arrows are spread 

 over nearly the whole forest region. 



The different groups may now be characterized: 



Bows in Central South America are of five different classes or 

 groups : 



Group 1. — Peruvian bow. — Rectangular or long elliptical cross section 

 and almost always made of the heavy, black chonta palm wood. (PI. 

 LVII, fig. 1;P1. LX, fig. 1.) 



Group 2. — North Brazilian bow. — Semicircular cross section, charac- 

 terized by the material, a reddish brown, smooth, leguminous wood. 

 (PL LVIII, fig. 10.) 



Group 3. — Guiana bow. — Small with parabolic cross section for the 

 most part and a channel along the outer side. Made from a dark- 

 brown wood. Between the north Brazilian type and the Guiana type 

 there is an intermediate form. 



Group 4. — Chaco bow. — Round and beautifully smooth exterior, made 

 from the red Curepay acacia. 



Group 5. — East Brazilian bow. — Distinguished by the choice of differ- 

 ent woods. The type is separated into two subgroups, which at the 

 north have their connecting link in the Shingu bow and at the south in 

 the Kameh bow. The western class has been developed out of the 

 smooth, strong wooden bow of the Bororo, having cross section, and 

 wrapped with "cipo," a liana bast. The eastern subgroup is marked by 

 the black Airi palm wood, in the southeast less carefully made by the 

 Puri and Botocudos. On the contrary, in the Caraja bow (PL LIX, 

 fig. 1) of dark-brown palm wood it has reached a high development, 

 which still survives in the Shingu bow (PL LVII, figs. 1, 4, 7), the inter- 

 mediate form between the eastern and the western subgroup. To the 

 eastern subgroup belong the majority of the Ges tribes, while the west- 

 ern subgroup finds its greatest extension among the Tupi tribes of 

 Paraguay. 



Outside of this group stand the Mataco bow, the Fuegian bow, and 

 the Central American bow, which are not considered here. 



The types of feathering are as numerous as the bow types, and may 

 be briefly characterized as follows : 



Feathering of South American bows. 



1. East Brazilian or Gez- Tupi feathering. — A widely separated group, 

 which, like the east Brazilian bow group, extends over the entire eastern 

 Brazil as far west as the Paraguay and the Shingu. Two feathers 

 unchanged, seldom halved, are fastened at their upper and lower ends 

 to the shaftmeut opposite each other with thread, fiber or cipo bast. 

 Frequently these wrappings are laid on in patterns or have an orna- 

 mentation of little feathers added. (PL LIX, figs. 8 and 9.) 



