Part 3 (1/2)

[Footnote 1: See First Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology, 1879-'80; 1881, Pl. X, ”Tolkotin cremation.”]

[Footnote 2: This may be the ”self-bow” mentioned in the American Naturalist for July, 1886, p. 675.]

[Footnote 3: This is the sinew-backed bow above mentioned.]

[Footnote 4: Long's Expedition, op. cit., vol. I, p. 290.]

Bowstrings were made of the twisted sinew of the elk and buffalo, as among other tribes.

Arrows.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 325.--Omaha hunting arrow.]

The arrows (man) used in former days were of several kinds. The hunting arrow, used for killing the buffalo, was generally about 2 feet long, of the usual cylindric form, and armed with an elongate triangular point, made at first of flint, afterward of sheet iron. The shoulders of the arrow were rounded instead of angular, as in the ordinary barbed form.

The point, or head, was firmly secured to the shaft by deer sinew wrapped around the neck of the point, and over that was spread some cement, made in a manner to be afterward explained. The flight of the arrow was equalized by three half-webs of feathers, neatly fastened near its base in the usual manner.

Another kind of hunting arrow was the hide n.a.z.ie, which was altogether of wood. About 6 inches from the point the shaft was triangular or quadrangular; and the point was made by holding the shaft close to a fire and turning it round and round till the heat had reduced it to the proper shape and had hardened it. This was used for killing fish, deer, and small game.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 326.--Omaha war arrow.]

The war arrow () differed from that used in hunting in having a barbed point, which was very slightly attached to the shaft, so that if it penetrated the body of an enemy it could not be withdrawn without leaving the point in the wound.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 327.--Omaha style of hide-?ace]

Children used the hide-?ace, or target arrow, when they began to learn the use of the bow. With this a boy could kill small birds and animals.

The Ponka used to make arrowshafts (mansa) of jan-'qude-hi, ”gray wood,”

juneberry wood, which grew in their country, but is not found among the Omaha. Most of the Omaha made their shafts of the ma^n'saqtihi, or ”real arrow-wood,” () as that was the wood best suited for the purpose. Sometimes they were made of chokecherry wood; and Joseph LaFleche informs me that he has made them of ash and hickory.