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IGE SPORTSILAN OW 
RUST _| 



Primitive Bows and Arrows 
Their Character and Uses in North America 
and the 
among primitive man as we 
PDH OUGE 
A know him, 
used for striking 
a distance, the 
device for this purpose, 
there were other implements 
game or the enemy, at 
and arrow 
bow was: the general 
and, except in one or 
two sections, was apparently the only one known 
in North the the 
white and ball. 
and in South 
the Southern 
before advent of 
‘with its 
America 
man’s gun powder 
Slings were used to some extent, 
America—and also in a part of 
United States—the blow-tube with its 
wild 
dart was 
yet 
Pana- 
a common means of killing animals, 
from the Arctic down to the 
ma the bow the 
Isthmus of 
the weapon 
the Eskimo, 
effect, the 
throwing 
the 
bolas 
and arrow was 
generally employed. Among 
the 
lance and 
k, 
most 
where used to good 
hurled 
bow was 
harpoon, from a 
stick, were also largely employed to secure 
larger marine animals, 
to capture 
Of the been said that “‘in 
ancient times there was no other weapon into 
which the human being could throw so 
as were a sort of 
birds. 
bow it has well 
much 
elf—his hands, his eyes, his whole mind, 
the North American Indians, 
practiced in the use of the bow from the time 
they could skilful 
archers, and devised bows perhaps as use- 
ful 
of hims 
and his 

body;” and 
walk, became singularly 
had 
Nevertheless, these 
as any known to man. 
“ies 

i 
pee 
Jey a ot a Whe 
We, i pies : 
ed [Me 

Prehistoric Human Vertebra Pierced by Stone 

Arrow 



Wounds Caused by Them 
bows were not such mighty weapons as we read 
of in the old books. 
as the long bow of the early English 
said to have used 
by savage tribes of Africa. It is true that some 
of the on the southwest coast of North 
feet long, 
length of 
which was 
and some- 
Commonly they were not 
so large 
archers, nor as those been 
bows 
America said to have been six 
but this far exceeded the 
the bow for the continent in general, 
usually not more than four feet long, 
times considerably less. 
Although these bows they 
were very strong, and yet their power differed 
with each individual, for 
have his bow as strong as he could conveniently 
are 
ordinary 
were not long, 
each man sought to 
each man had been practicing 
from small boyhood, he attained 
skill and a strength in this particular art far 
beyond with are familiar. 
[ have seen not a few bows which I could bend 
yet their owners, Indians, ap- 
powerful than I, 
to the head. 
Much has been written about the bow of the 
North and it is high time that this 
was the weapon which untold 
centuries aided the savage in procuring food, and 
protected him in his quarrels with his enemies, 
bend, and since 
with the bow 
anything which we 
but a few inches; 
parently no more could draw 
the arrow 
American, 
done, for for 
has almost passed out of use in the northern 

half of. our hemisphere, and, except as a toy 
scarcely finds a place among any of the people| 
of North America. Though it is still useful 1| 
hunting the almost extinct sea otter, and thoug | 
some of the natives of the far North still em 
ploy it to some extent in killing game an)| 
fish; nevertheless, it is rapidly passing out ¢| 
use. This change has taken place within th| 
last thirty years; that is to say, since the en 
trance of the railroad into the then unsettle 
West, and since the consequent destruction ¢ 
the buffalo. Less than forty years ago, whe 
great herds of the bison still roamed the plains 
nine-tenths of the hunting done by the Indian 
was still with the bow and arrow, on horseback'! 
True, the arm had been slightly modified by th? 
advent of the white man. The Indians use| 
arrows headed with keen points of sheet-iro'l 
instead of those of the stone, horn or bone as i}! 
primitive times. Yet the weapon was essential } 
what it had been, and the metal point merel| 
saved the arrow maker the labor of findin)}! 
and fashioning the hard stone, which had bee Ch 
the more common and useful primitive arrow}! 
point. i 
For a time this metal point, brought to hir?) 
by the white man, made life easy to the native|! 
of the land. It added greatly to the range anil! 
power of the arm, since the keenly whetted edg}' 
0 











Point. Skull of a Mexican killed in a fight Prehistoric human _ tibi}!! 
with Indians, near old Fort Concho, pierced by flint arrow poin} 
Texas, in 1868. (France), 



hi 
