Though you cannot make a real flint arrow-head, you can manufacture a toy one. Take a piece of stiff pasteboard and cut it like [Fig. 183]. Let the length be a trifle over half an inch. Cover the arrow-head all over with a light coat of glue, then dip it in sand, and the arrow-head will come out as if made of stone. Were it actually hard stone and large size you would be obliged, as the Indians do, to trim and shape more perfectly the point and edges of the arrow-head. You would hold a pad of buckskin in your left hand to protect it from the sharp flint, and on your right hand would be a piece of dressed hide to guard it from the straight piece of bone, pointed on the end, which you would use to strike off little bits of stone along both edges, working cautiously as you neared the point in order not to break it. But such work will not be needed on your arrow-head.
For
The Shaft
hunt up a piece of wood strong and straight. Cut it three inches in length, remove the bark and scrape the wood until it is about the thickness of an ordinary match. Notch one end and split the other end down one-quarter of an inch, insert the arrow-head ([Fig. 184]), then bind the shaft and head together with thread ([Fig. 185]), in place of the wet sinew an Indian would use for a real arrow, after he had first fastened the head in the shaft with glue from buffalo hoofs.
| Fig. [184].—Insert arrow-head in shaft. | Fig. [185].—Arrow-head and shaft bound together. | Fig. [186].—Paper feather for arrow. | Fig. [187]. |
Cut three paper feather strips ([Fig. 186]), each an inch in length, paint black bands on them, bend at dotted line and glue the feathers on the shaft one-quarter of an inch from the notch, allowing them to stand out at angles equally distant from each other ([Fig. 187]). Bind the extensions L and M ([Fig. 186]) to the shaft, and tie tufts of white and red worsted on immediately above the feathers to help in finding the arrow ([Fig. 188]). Paint the shaft in brilliant colors.
Almost any kind of wood that has a spring will make
A Good Bow
for your little Indian. Cut the piece of wood four inches long and an eighth of an inch wide. Scrape it flat on one side and slightly rounded on the other, notch the stick at each end, wind the centre with red worsted and paint the bow in bright hues ([Fig. 189]). Tie a strong thread in one notch and bring it across to the other notch; tighten until it bends the bow centre half an inch from the straight thread; tie the thread around the notch ([Fig. 190]). Now try the wee weapon; hold it vertically and shoot the little arrow into the air. It will fly very swiftly away, landing many yards from where you stand.
| Fig. [188].—Finished arrow. | Fig. [189].—Bow ready for string. | Fig. [190]. Bow string. |