A study of the Eskimo bows in the U.S. National Museum by Murdoch John 1852-

Author:Murdoch, John, 1852-
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Bow and arrow, Eskimos
Publisher: Washington Govt. Print. Off
Published: 1890-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

tip from beyond the bend,* while a fourth is precisely of the arctic type with a very large number of strands.t

Several of these bows are made of oak, evidently barrel-staves obtained from white men, but are, notwithstanding, providejl with a pow-gnul backing, which shows how inseparably this invention, in its origin applicable only to inelastic wood, has become connected with the idea ^f a.bow in the mind of the maker. ^ ^

Comparing what I have said of the geographical distribution of these types of bow with the divisions of the Eskimos of the Northwest adopted by Mr. Dall,| it will be seen that of the Western Mackenzie Innuit (his first great division) the Kopagmut {Kupu'nmeun of the Point Barrow natives) and probably the Kangmaligmut {Kunmu'Wlin of the same people, an almost unknown tribe, concerning whom there appears to be no reliable information), with probably all the Western Innuit except the Chuklukmut, Kikhtd'gamut, and Mahlemut, use the pure arctic tjpe. The Chuklukmut and Kikht5'gamut use the western type, with some admixture of the arctic. The Mahlemut and Unaligmut (the northernmost tribe of Fishing Innuit) use the arctic ancj the southern type and intermediate forms, while the remainder of the Fishing Innuit use the pure southern type.

Assuming, as is highly probable, that all the branches of the Eskimo race started with the primitive form of bow above described, the inhabitants of the well-wooded shores of Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska, who have a plentiful supply of fresh living spruce, have im-

proved on this type chiefly by lengthening and strengthening the wood

of the bow and collecting the loose strands into a compact round cable, which is occasionally made somewhat thicker across the middle than towards the ends.

Those who live on the treeless shores of the Arctic Ocean are forced to depend on comparatively scarce dead and brittle drift-wood, and have j_been obliged to devote their attention to the improvement of the sinew [.Jbacking in order to increase the efficiency of the weapon. The conse-Lquence has been the development of the exceedingly complicated and perfect form above described. This is probably the ultimate step in the development of the sinew-backed bow. Xot only is it difficult to imagine making a more perfect weapon from the materials, but attention will no longer be paid to possible improvements in a weapon which is rapidly passing into disuse and becoming superseded by fire-arms.

The people of Saint Lawrence Island, out of the direct line of com-munication between the two continents and also dependent on drift-T^od, have developed the bow in a different way from all the rest.

* A peculiar clove-hitch (Fig. 25; occurs at each end of this bow. tThis bow (No. 2507) has a reversed " soldier's hitch" in the seizing (Fig. 26) in which the end passes under the standing part and over the turns. X Contribations to North American Ethnology, vol. i, p. 23.

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