Fig. 79. (S. 1–1.) Material: white flint, Southern Ohio. A, point; B, edge; C, face; D, bevel; E, blade; F, tang; G, stem; H, base; I, notch; K, neck; M, barb or shoulder; N, serration. Phillips Academy collection.
The bows and arrows of the Indians are numerous in our larger museums. Yet, with here and there an exception, these are of the past sixty years, a few are one hundred and fifty or more years old, though now and then one may observe a bow in a European museum dating back two or three centuries. I have not presented figures of the bows and have given but one of the arrows. Dr. Pepper found a bundle of ancient arrows in Pueblo Bonito, a prehistoric ruin in northern New Mexico. It lay at considerable depth in one of the lower rooms, rubbish-filled at the time of his exploration. There can be no question as to the prehistoric origin of these arrows. They were all tipped with obsidian points, well gummed and sinewed to the shafts.
Fig. 80. (S. 1–5.) Buffalo skull with long, slender arrow penetrating the left frontal bone. Found on the Great Plains in Iowa. Collection of the Historical Department of the State of Iowa.
Fig. 81. (S. 1–2.) Human skull from California, with an arrow-point embedded in the frontal bone causing the death of the subject. H. K. Deisher, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.
Any reader may be able to obtain a good idea of the types prevailing among tribes the past sixty years if he will inspect the museum collections in his nearest city, for there are now public museums in upwards of seventy cities in the United States.
Professor Mason, Dr. Hough, and other gentlemen made a study of bows and arrows in the Smithsonian Institution. After many years of observation, Professor Mason prepared an article for the “Handbook of American Indians” and portions of it are herewith presented.
ARROWS, BOWS, AND QUIVERS
“The bow and arrow was the most useful and universal weapon and implement of the chase possessed by the Indians north of Mexico for striking or piercing distant objects.