FOnEST AND STREAM. 


peers ey ip # ¥ 2 
eri iia ademeemscunneiahiisiatia 
Indian Arrows used in actual war. 
piece of flint held in the other hand, he flaked 
off successive chips, one after another, until 
one side of it was straight, when he passed to 
the other. 
Mr. H. C. Dulog, in a communication made 
some years ago to ForREsT AND STREAM, gave 
a capital description of this operation, which I 
may here quote. He says: 
“At the base of Mount Uncle Sam, on the 
west of Clear Lake, California, there is a tract 
of two or three miles in extent. covered with 
fragments of obsidian, 
“With material so plentiful the surrounding 
Indians are careful to choose only those pieces 
best shaped by nature for that purpose; but 
at places distant from the source of supply, 
obsidian, which is often brought in large blocks, 
is chipped off in flakes from around a central 
core by blows of a rock. 
“The old expert put on his left hand a piece 
of buckskin, with a hole cut in it to let the 
thumb pass through, something like the ‘palm’ 
used by sailmakers. This was of course to pro- 
tect his hand while at work. In his right hand 
he took a tool of bone ground down to a blunt 
point. These tools, made often from the leg 
bone of a deer, are assorted in sizes. large ones 
being used for coarse work 
fine work, 
“A piece of obsidian of the right size was 
held in the left hand, then the right thumb was 
pressed on the top of the stone, while the point 
of the bone was strongly pressed against the 
under edge of the proposed arrow head, and a 
little splinter of obsidian worked off. The 
operation was similar to the opening of a can 
with one of the old-fashioned can openers that 
work without leverage. Oftentimes material is 
spoiled in the sharpening. Around deserted 
camps piles of rejected fragments are sometimes 
and small ones for 
ee GOES AEG RET FE 


















































from wounds 
From the Army Medical Museum, 
Most of them were removed 
found, either broken in putting on the edge or 
not being near enough the desired shape to pay 
for working up. 
“A good deal of the sharpener’s work, too, 
consisted in freshening up the edges of points 
blunted by use. 
“One arrow head, wheather-worn by exposure, 
was shown me, with a border of fresh fractures 
extending from one-eighth to one-fourth of an 
inch in from the edge, where the sharpener’s 
tool had been. 
“There results from this process a serrated 
edge, which in the best specimens is beautifully 
fine and regular, but in rougher tools is often 
coarse. The old workman was careful of his 
stock in trade, and rolled up the fruit of his in- 
dustry in a piece of ragged blanket to prevent 
its being injured while in transit from place to 
place.” 

Often the arrow maker of the plains, instead 
of using buckskin protector for the palm of 
either hand, placed the arrow head on a wad 
of buffalo hair, and held a cushion of the same 
in the right hand, and pressed the handle of his 
tool against this. 
Stone arrow heads vary greatly in shape and 
size. Some are very small, others are large, 
the larger ones probably being lance-heads. 
Some are fine and delicate, while others are very 
rough and coarse. Some arrow heads are 
roughly triangular in shape; sometimes an 
isosceles triangle, the shorter side being inserted 
in the notch in the point of the arrow shait; 
but often a short shank was worked out for at- 
tachment to the shaft. This shank, or, if there 
was no shank, the middle of the short side of the 
triangle, was set into a notch in the shaft, 
fastened by glue, and made still more secure by 
being whipped in place by wet threads of sinew. 
The arrows belonging to the same Indian 
by the operating surgeons. 
Ti 

were all alike; the same in length, in feather! 
and, as nearly as might be, in the head. Mc 
over, on his arrows each man had his priv, 
mark of ownership, so that wherever this ™ 
row was seen he would know it again. 1 
was an important matter, especially in hil 
ing, where the only way of identifying the g# 
that he had killed might be by the arrow wl" 
remained in it. These private marks usu} 
consisted of some fashion of painting, but sol 
times, also, of some arrangement of feathers* 
the shaft. There was a general similarity am)! 
all the arrows used by a tribe, so that an ar‘! 
found on the prairie could usually be identi! 
by an Indian, who would see that it had be 
manufactured by the Snakes, the Crows, * 
Cheyennes, or whoever it might be. ‘ 
It is well understood that all the cutting #! 
struments of the primitive Americans were 
stone, and all were made substantially as tH 
arrow heads were made, and differed from tl)! 
chiefly in size and shape. Many of the knit 
were short, and were completed by fixing thi 
into a wooden handle, either by some forn|s 
lashing or by some adhesive mixture, but scl 
knives were long and had a stone handle. Lait 
heads were like large arrow points and wi 
commonly lashed to the end of a stick or p 
and used for thrusting. All these ancient st 
cutting and piercing instruments passed out 
immediately after the Indians  obtaitl 
metal, and have now been largely lost. Sit 
of them as still remain in the possession of $ 
Indians have taken on a ceremonial or sacl 
character, and are largely used as amulets 
protective charms, and are worn about the nj" 
or tied on the hair or are wrapped up in 7 
sacred bundle of the mystery men. as 
In skilled hands the power of the bow andft 
arrow was something quite beyond the powerlt 
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