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Bows and Arrows: warriors made their bows and arrows of hickory or iron- 
wood, but for children’s weapons they often substituted maple. The 
bow was supposed to measure from the middle finger tip of one hand 
to the corresponding finger tip of the other; and its arrow from the 
middle finger tip to the shoulder joint. One man, John Manatuwaba, 
offered different formulse: for the bow, from the ground to the nipple; 
for the arrow, from the ground to the garter above the knee. 
Genuine bows for hunting and war no longer exist. It is said that 
they were often sharpened at one end (like the handle of the war- club) 
so that they could be planted upright in the ground or used as lances 
in close fighting. The string was a throng of moose-hide. The arrow 
had three untwisted feathers set in grooves, and lashed down at the 
two ends with sinew. Some toy bows seen on Parry island were flat on 
both surfaces, with simple notches for the string. Most of them had 
straight edges tapering to the ends, but two were scalloped along one 
edge. 
Jonas King stated that the majority of the Ojibwa used the 
primary release; a few the Mediterranean, but without the little finger. 
He and some other Parry Islanders rested the arrow above the first 
finger of the left hand, but John Manatuwaba supported it between the 
first and second fingers. 
Dyes for Colouring Porcupine Quills: 
Black: from the barks of the oak and soft maple, boiled together. 
Red: from boiled alder bark, or from the boiled roots of the blood-root 
{Sanguinaria canadensis ) . A very deep red was obtained by boil- 
ing the bark of the red cedar. 
Yellow: from the boiled roots of gold-thread ( Coptis trifolia ) ; from 
the boiled seeds of Myrica gale ; from boiled shavings of the 
sumac. 
Blue: from a blue stone (copper ore?) crushed in water. 
Tobacco: so far as the Parry Islanders are aware, none of their forefathers 
cultivated tobacco, but obtained it from an Iroquoian tribe in exchange 
for furs. There was no smoking for mere pleasure in earlier times; it 
was a strictly religious ceremony, practised, e.g., by medicine-men 
when healing the sick. When tobacco was scarce the Indians substi- 
tuted willow bark, labrador tea, dried and pounded bearberry roots, or 
the berry-like tips of the white ash. 
