560 BOWS AND ARROWS IN CENTRAL BRAZIL. 



This commingling of tribes, belonging to different stocks in the com- 

 paratively narrow space of the upper affluents of the Shingu, Kulisehu, 

 Batovy, and Kuluene, furnishes the best example of how, through long 

 contiguous dwelling, national peculiarities are obliterated and a new 

 common type takes the place. The bows aud arrows of these stocks 

 differ only very little from one another, but together very much from 

 those of the stocks of the lower Shingu; for example, from the Yuruna, 

 of whom they have no knowledge, on account of the rapid streams 

 difficult to pass. Among these, it will be seen later, the East Brazilian 

 feathering unites with the Peru bow, a circumstance which witnesses 

 in favor of the Yon den Steinen theory of the migration of the western 

 Tupi. 



If the Upper Shingu tribes be kept solely in view, without regarding 

 small differences, the following statements may be confirmed: 



To all of them the bow and the arrow are common, while other 

 weapons, such as the throwing stick and the club, appear only among 

 isolated tribes. 



The arrows, as well as the bows, are universally beautiful and care- 

 fully wrought, from which Yon den Steinen draws the conclusion that 

 they indeed, as hunting peoples, had also an irregular kind of seden- 

 tary life, and that they, notwithstanding that the hunter stage is 

 always more and more being supplanted by agriculture, have not 

 become negligent in the manufacture of hunting implements. This 

 rests chiefly upon the exalted position which the bow and arrow holds 

 in their tradition. He mentions of the tribal history of the Baccairi, 

 among others, that the culture-hero Keri had created the tribe out of 

 different -arrow feeds. (Yon den Steinen, op. cit., 228, 379.) 



Yon den Steinen says, " the length of the bow reaches 220 to 250 cm." 

 (PI. LYII, figs. 1-7). The yellow wood is furnished by the Arata tree 

 teconia, etc. Dark-brown pal in wood is often found among the Aueto 

 and Kamayura tribes and among the Tupi stock, whose bows are 

 wound with cotton wrappings in a sort of staircase pattern, a decora- 

 tion widely distributed in South America. The cross section of the bow 

 is about circular and it tapers toward the end, becoming more elliptical. 

 The ends are somewhat rounded for the reception of the bowstring, 

 running to points. The bowstring, twisted from the bast of the tucum 

 palm, is looped on at one end. It is knotted around the other end and 

 is extended along the back, becoming smaller and smaller, and is made 

 fast around the upper limb, about two-thirds the height of the bow. 

 The curvature of the bow differs and often there is more than one 

 curve. A single slight curve is rare and only to be fouud among the 

 Baccairi and the Nahuqua. The Aueto and Kamayura have slightly 

 double-curved bows, with ends bent back. The bows of the Baccairi, 

 Trumai, and the palinwood bows of the Aueto and Kamayura show a 

 bend of the limbs in an opposite direction. 



On a bow of the Kamayura and two of the Baccairi are tight leather 

 rings stretched over the limbs, a custom which is also to be seen upon 





