Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1881 — A Talk About Bows and Arrows. [ARTICLE]

A Talk About Bows and Arrows.

Forest and Stream. “You see,** said Dr. Carver as he deposited a whole sheath of brightly feathered arrows on a table, and drew up a chair, “I must be shooting something or other all the time. If it isn’t a Winchester, its a bow and arrow. Pretty they are, but most too fine! Fancy things, these arrows, for handsome young ladies to shoot on grass plats at straw targets. Now an Indian arrow is a good bit longer—maybe thirty-two inches—and when a Sioux draws it chock up to the bow it fairly hums when he lets it fly. An Indian arrow has grooves cut in behind the barb—that is to say, the ones they use in hunting—so that the bloodcan;flow, otherwise the wound would swell and spoil. The fighting arrows are nasty things. The barb is so put on the shaft that when it hits you, tne steel, the old hoop-iron, stays in the flesh when you go to pull out the arrow. Dear sakes, what ugly wounds I have seen them make. An Indian boy begins to handle a light bow when he toddles, maybe at four or five years. His bow is taller than he is. He shoots at everything round the camp. Wnen he is twelve lie uses sharp arrows. A boy must be strong at eighteen to use a man’s bow. Now a white man who takes an Indian’s bow for the first time has all he can do to bend it. It needs some strength, but more knack. The bow is made straight When it is strung, the cord, even when in tension, almost touches the bow. It is thick, some four and a half oe five feet long—that is their hunting bow and has extra stifnees by having sinews pasted on it I have seen We-sheesa-has-ka—that is, the long man—and he was the best of the Ogalalia Sioux, kill an antelope with his arrow at 125 measured yard*.

We • shessa - has -ka was nearly seven feet tall, and a good Indian. On horsebackj broadside toa buffalo, I have more than onoe known that Indian to send that arrow through a big oow. Hie arrow hong out on the other side. The bow for horseback and war is a trifle shorter.and maybe stiller. You do not draw the arrow to the eye, but catch aim as I do when shooting from the hip. This can be acquired only by long practioe. The string is drawn by the dutch of the whole fingers, though some of the tribes use the thumb and three fingers. The long maw could shoot an arrow in the air out of sight, and so can I (the Dootor pointed to an arrow buried up to the featners in the ceiling of our offloe; his own peculiar ornamentation of the Forest and Stream sanctum). I think that in a couple of months I could get into perfect practice, for I used to hold my own with any Indian on the plains, Sometimes after I had been shooting my Winchester an Indian would oome np and show his bow and tell me his bow was ‘muche good,’ and then I used to take his own bow and beat him at it.

"To pass away the time when I was at the Brooklyn Driving Park,lbought an English bow and arrows of Holberton, and soon got into the trick ot it. I hit blocks of wood thrown into the air quite as often as I missed them. The English bows and arrows are fancy, but good. I would rather have an old Sioux one, made of hickory or ash, but the boss bow I ever owned was made of buffalo ribs. An Indian carries his quiver of arrows over his right shoulder, so that he can get his arrows quickly. When he has discharged one arrow, with the same motion that he uses in pulling the string he clutobes another arrow. If he shoots 100 yards he has three or four arrows in the air all goirg at the same time. It’s great fun shooting at;a bird with a long tail that'flies over the|prairie. Knock out his tail and his steering apparatus is gone. I have’knocked the tail out of many a one and so caught him in my hands when he tumbled.”