THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 391 



and when purchasing them have inquired of the Indians what hone they were made 

 of, and in every instance the answer was "that's medicine," meaning that it was a 

 mystery to them, or that they did not wish to be questioned about them. The bone 

 of which they are made is certainly not the bone of any animal now grazing on the 

 prairies or in the mountains between this place and the Pacific Ocean ; for some of 

 these bows are 3 feet in length, of a solid piece of bone, and that as close-grained, as 

 hard, as white, and as highly polished as any ivory; it cannot, therefore, be made 

 from the elk's horn (as some have supposed), which is of a dark color and porous ; 

 nor can it come from the buffalo. It is my opinion, therefore, that the Indians on 

 the Pacific coast procure the bone from the jaw of the sperm whale, which is often 

 stranded on that coast, and bringing the bone into the. mountains, trade it to the 

 Blackfcet and Crows, who manufacture it into these bows without knowing any 

 more than we do from what source it has been procured. 



One of these little bows in the hands of an Indian on a fleet and well-trained horse, 

 with a quiver of arrows slung on his back, is a most effective and powerful weapon 

 in the open plains. No one can easily credit the force with which these arrows aro 

 thrown, and the sanguinary effects produced by their wounds, until he has rode by 

 the side of a party of Indians in chase of a herd of buffaloes, and witnessed the ap- 

 parent ease and grace with which their supple arms have drawn the bow, and seen 

 these huge animals tumbling down and gushing out their heart's blood from their 

 mouths and nostrils. 



POISONED ARROWS. 



Their bows are often made of bone and sinews, and their arrows headed with flints 

 or with boues of their own construction (Plate 18c), or with steel, as they are now 

 chiefly famished by the fur-traders quite to the Rocky Mountains (Plate I8d). The 

 quiver, which is uniformly carried on the back, and mado of the panther or otter 

 skins (Plate 18e), is a magazine of these deadly weapons, and generally contains two va- 

 rieties. The one to be drawn upon an enemy, generally poisoned, and with long flukes 

 or barbs, which are designed to hang the blade in the wound after the shaft is with- 

 drawn, in which they are but slightly glued; the other to be used for their game 

 with the blade firmly fastened to the shaft, and the flukes inverted, that it may easily 

 be drawn from the wound and used on a future occasion. 



Such is the training of men and horses in this country that this work of death and 

 slaughter is simple and easy. The horse is trained to approach the animal on tho 

 right side, enabling its rider to throw his arrows to the left ; it runs and approaches 

 without the use of the halter, which is hanging loose upon its neck, bringing the rider 

 within three or four paces of the animal, when the arrow is thrown with great ease 

 and certainty to the heart ; and instances sometimes occur where the arrow passes 

 entirely through 1he animal's body. 



LANCES. 



An Indian, therefore, mounted on a fleet and well-trained horse, with his bow in 

 his hand, and his quiver slung on his back, containing an hundred arrows, of which 

 he can throw fifteen or twenty in a minute, is a formidable and dangerous enemy. 

 Many of them also ride with a lance of 12 or 14 feet in length (Plate 18&), with a 

 blade of polished steel ; and all of them (as a protection for their vital parts) with, a 

 shield or arrow-fender made of the skin of the buffalo's neck, which has been smoked 

 and hardened with glue extracted from the hoofs (Plate 18/). These shields are 

 arrow-proof, and will glance off a rifle shot with perfect effect by being turned ob- 

 liqnely, which they do with great skill. 



SHIELD OR ARROW-FENDER. 



This shield or arrow-fender is, in my opinion, made of similar materials, and used 

 in the same way and for the same purpose as was the clypeus or small shield in the 

 Roman and Grecian cavalry. They were made in those days as a means of defense 



