468 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890, 



rocious brutes are fearlessly attacked with such inferior weapons as the 



bows and arrows represented 

 in Fig. 84. One bow in this 

 figure was obtained from an 

 old man at Shari, who, in a 

 most dramatic manner, illus- 

 trated the manner of shooting 

 bears. The bow is strung by 

 taking the free endof the string 

 between the teeth and drawing 

 up the slack while the hands 

 are employed in bending the 

 wood. The best bows are made 

 of the wood of Taxus cuspidata. 

 The arrows are made in dif- 

 ferent ways. Some of them 

 are plain, straight shafts, with 

 iron heads and feathered ends. 

 Not long since, stone heads 

 were in use, but now Japanese 

 iron is hammered into heavy 

 barbed poiuts. Since the in- 

 troduction of knives, bamboo 

 heads have been adopted. By 

 so cutting the bamboo that the 

 hard cortex of the stem forms 

 the point and edge, very ex- 

 cellent arrow-heads are made. 

 I have seen an arrow head of 

 this kind driven from a bow 

 into a board with great force 

 without noticeable injury to 

 the point. The shaft is usually 

 made in two sections. The 

 notched end is usually a length 

 of reed (Phragmites) or of scrub 

 bamboo, at the lower end of 

 which the feathers are tied 

 with fine bark fiber. This is 

 joined to a somewhat shorter 

 length of wood, the upper part 

 of which tapers, and is inserted 

 into the base of the bamboo or 

 bone head. Such jointed ar- 

 rows are shown in Fig. 84. 

 The heads are secured with 



resin and bindings of bark, but they are easily detached. 



rip. si. 



Bows, Arrows, and Quiver. 



