The chief instrument used by the Indians in hunting was the bow and arrow. The bow was manufactured from the locust tree or witch-hazel, because either could be cut with ease when green, and became extremely tough when seasoned by exposure to fire or the sun. It was fashioned into shape with a shell. The arrows were made either of sprigs or reeds, according to the character of the game to be shot, and were tipped with pieces of flint and other varieties of hard stone, or with the spur of the wild turkey, or the bill of a bird, these heads being two or three inches in length, and often smeared with poison.[1] The Indian always carried about with him a bone which he used at a moment’s notice in shaping his arrow head; the latter was attached to the staff by means of a deer sinew, or was glued on with a preparation of boiled deer horn.
The arrow butt was notched with a bear or beaver tooth, and the haft was balanced with turkey feathers. The quiver as made of the skin of a fox or wolf, the tail not being detached. In addition, the tail of the panther or buffalo was often tied to the end, and suffered to drag behind. The Indian could discharge an arrow forty yards on a level, and in some cases brought down game with it at a distance of one hundred and twenty yards; some conception of the force of the discharge may be obtained from the fact, that on one occasion at Jamestown, not long after its foundation, a Paspaheigh Indian drove an arrow a foot into a target which a pistol-ball had failed to pierce; an arrow that struck a steel target, however, was dashed to splinters. Its great force was largely due to the use in the manufacture of the bowstring of the stoutest stag gut, or thongs of carefully prepared deer hide. The bow and arrow, however, was not the only
- ↑ Relatyon of the Discovery of Our River, p. xlviii. See also Works of Capt. John Smith, p. 68.
