BOWS AND ARROWS IN CENTRAL BRAZIL. 557 



But, yet, a certain analogy is discoverable in the two methods of 

 grouping. 



So the boundary lines of the enclave of east Brazilian feathering 

 correspond in gross features to the boundary lines of the distribution 

 region of the east Brazilian bow. Furthermore, omitting the region 

 of the Chaco feathering, the region of the Peruvian bow is overlaid by 

 that of the Peru cemented feathering. 



The Guiana bow has about the same extent as the Guiana arrow; 

 however, the southern boundary of the bow region lies more to the 

 north than that of the feathering, which in several places overpasses 

 the Amazon. 



To these almost analogous groups belong a bow type which alto- 

 gether detached from a feathering region on the north engrafts itself 

 on the region of the Peru bow and the east Brazilian bow. Also, 

 where the three chief feathering groups — the Peru cemented feather, 

 the east Brazilian, and the Guiana — come together, three entirely 

 separate feather types (Mauhe, Arara, and Shingu) have spread over 

 regions whose borders intrude into one another. 



This mixed area into which the characteristics of individual ethno- 

 graphic developments have obtruded themselves is the Mato Grosso. 

 We can from this realize what great importance the thorough explora- 

 tion of this region possesses for the entire ethnology of South America, 

 and I hold it, therefore, not fruitless if I seek before I describe clearly 

 in a greater work the result of my investigations upon the collective 

 material concerning the South American bows and arrows, to give, so 

 far as it is possible, in this publication an ethnographic picture of the 

 Mato Grosso. 



The Mato Grosso is the highland in which several principal rivers of 

 South America have their origin. While the Paraguay tlows south- 

 ward and furnishes, through its extremely fortunate advantages for 

 navigation, the veins of commerce, the fountains of the most important 

 affluents of the Amazon on the south spring from the neighborhood of 

 the Paraguay sources, so that a lively commerce from the Amazon to 

 the La Plata would go on across interior Brazil by water, if an impass- 

 able barrier to navigation between the northern incline of the Mato 

 Grosso and deep water of the Amazon were not established by the 

 waterfalls and rapids. Since, through the earlier expeditions on these 

 rivers^-Tapajoz, Shingu, Araguay, Tocantins — for the purpose of infor- 

 mation concerning the feasibility of a good connection with the Ama- 

 zons, no practical result was obtained, it is natural that general geo- 

 graphical knowledge about this region should have remained very 

 meager up to this century. It was through the expeditions of bat- 

 terer, Castelman, Wedell, Martius, Pohls, Yon den Steinen, and Ehren- 

 reich that a glance was obtained at the natural relations of this area, 

 and especially was it batterer, Martius, Von den Steinen, and Ehren- 

 reich who made themselves serviceable for the ethnography of the 



