Two Little Savages
Page 25
IX
The Bows and Arrows
"I don't think much of your artillery," said Yan one day as they wereshooting in the orchard with Sam's "Western outfit." "It's about likethe first one I made when I was young."
"Well, grandpa, let's see your up-to-date make?"
"It'd be about five times as strong, for one thing."
"You couldn't pull it."
"Not the way you hold the arrow! But last winter I got a book aboutarchery from the library and learned something worth while. You pinchthe arrow that way and you can draw six or eight pounds, maybe, butyou hook your fingers in the string--so--and you can draw five timesas much, and that's the right way to shoot."
"Feels mighty clumsy," said Sam, trying it.
"Of course it does at first, and you have to have a deep notch in thearrow or you can't do it at all."
"You don't seem to manage any better than I do."
"First time I ever had a chance to try since I read about it. But Iwant to make a first-class bow and a lot of arrows. It's not much goodgoing with _one_."
The Archer's Grip]
"Well, go ahead an' make an outfit if you know how. What's the bestwood? Did the book tell you that?"
"The best wood is Spanish Yew."
"Don't know it."
"An' the next is Oregon Yew."
"Nope."
"Then Lancewood and Osage Orange."
'Try again."
"Well, Red Cedar, Apple tree, Hickory and Elm seem to be the only onesthat grow around here."
"Hain't seen any _Red_ Cedar, but the rest is easy."
"It has to be thoroughly seasoned winter-cut wood, and cut so as tohave heart on one side and sap wood on the other."
"How's that?" and Sam pointed to a lot of half-round Hickory stickson the rafters of the log house. "Those have been there a couple ofyears."
A good one of five feet long was selected and split and hewn with theaxe till the boys had the two bow staves, five and one-half feet longand two inches square, with the line of the heart and sap wood downthe middle of each.
Guided by his memory of that precious book and some English long bowsthat he had seen in a shop in town, Yan superintended the manufacture.Sam was apt with tools, and in time they finished two bows, five feetlong and drawing possibly twenty-five pounds each. In the middle theywere one and one-half inches wide and an inch thick (see page 183).This size they kept for nine inches each way, making an eighteen-inchmiddle part that did not bend, but their two limbs were shaved downand scraped with glass till they bent evenly and were well within theboys' strength.
The string was the next difficulty. All the ordinary string they couldget around the house proved too weak, never lasting more than twoor three shots, till Si Lee, seeing their trouble, sent them to thecobbler's for a hank of unbleached linen thread and some shoemaker'swax. Of this thread he reeled enough for a strong cord tight aroundtwo pegs seven feet apart, then cutting it loose at one end he dividedit equally in three parts, and, after slight waxing, he looselyplaited them together. At Yan's suggestion he then spliced a loop atone end, and with a fine waxed thread lashed six inches of the middlewhere the arrow fitted, as well as the splice of the loop. This lastenabled them to unstring the bow when not in use (see page 183)."There," said he, "you won't break that." The finishing touch wasthinly coating the bows with some varnish found among the paintsupplies.
"Makes my old bow look purty sick," remarked Sam, as he held up thereally fine new weapon in contrast with the wretched little hoop thathad embodied his early ideas. "Now what do you know about arrers,mister?" as he tried his old arrow in the new bow.
"I know that that's no good," was the reply; "an' I can tell you thatit's a deal harder to make an arrow than a bow--that is, a good one."
"That's encouraging, considering the trouble we've had already."
"'Tisn't meant to be, but we ought to have a dozen arrows each."
"How do the Injuns make them?"
"Mostly they get straight sticks of the Arrow-wood; but I haven't seenany Arrow-wood here, and they're not so awfully straight. You see, anarrow must be straight or it'll fly crooked. 'Straight as an arrow'means the thing itself. We can do better than the Indians 'cause wehave better tools. We can split them out of the solid wood."
"What wood? Some bloomin' foreign kind that no White-man never saw norheard of before?"
"No sir-ree. There ain't anything better 'n White Pine for target andAsh or Hickory for hunting arrows. Which are we making?"
"I'm a hunter. Give me huntin' arrows every time. What's needed next?"
"Seasoned Ash twenty-five inches long, split to three-eighths of aninch thick, hot glue, and turkey-wing feathers."
"I'll get the feathers and let you do the rest," said Sam, producinga bundle of turkey-wings, laid away as stove-dusters, and then beliedhis own statement by getting a block of Ash and splitting it up,halving it each time till he had a pile of two dozen straight sticksabout three-quarters of an inch thick.
Yan took one and began with his knife to whittle it down to propersize and shape, but Sam said, "I can do better than that," then tookthe lot to the workbench and set to work with a smoothing plane. Yanlooked worried and finally said:
"Injuns didn't have planes."
"Nor jack-knives neither," was the retort.
That was true, and yet somehow Yan's ideal that he hankered afterwas the pre-Columbian Indian, the one who had no White-man's help ortools.
"It seems to me it'd be more Injun to make these with just what we getin the woods. The Injuns didn't have jack-knives, but they had sharpflints in the old days."
"Yan, you go ahead with a sharp stone. You'll find lots on the road ifyou take off your shoes and walk barefoot--awful sharp; an' I'll goahead with the smoothing plane an' see who wins."
Yan was not satisfied, but he contented himself with promising that hewould some day make some arrows of Arrow-wood shoots and now hewould finish at least one with his knife. He did so, but Sam, in themeantime, made six much better ones with the smoothing plane.
"What about heads?" said he.
"I've been thinking," was the reply. "Of course the Indians used stoneheads fastened on with sinew, but we haven't got the stuff to do that.Bought heads of iron with a ferrule for the end of the arrow are best,but we can't get them. Bone heads and horn heads will do. I made somefine ones once filing bones into the shape, but they were awfullybrittle; and I made some more of big nails cut off and set in with alashing of fine wire around the end to stop the wood splitting. SomeIndian arrows have no point but the stick sharpened after it'sscorched to harden it."
SIX SAMPLE ARROWS, SHOWING DIFFERENT FEATHERS]
"That sounds easy enough for me," said Sam; "let's make some of themthat way."
So the arrows were made, six each with nail points filed sharp andlashed with broom wire. These were called "War arrows," and six eachwith fire-hardened wood points for hunting arrows.
"Now for the feathering," and Yan showed Sam how to split the midribof a turkey feather and separate the vane.
"Le's see, you want twice twenty-four--that's forty-eight feathers."
"No," said Yan, "that's a poor feathering, two on each. We want threeon each arrow--seventy-two strips in all, and mind you, we want allthree that are on one arrow from the same side of the bird."
"I know. I'll bet it's bad luck to mix sides; arrows doesn't knowwhich way to turn."
At this moment Si Lee came in. "How are ye gettin' on with the bows?"
"Waitin' for arrows now."
"How do ye put on the feathers?"
DESCRIPTION OF SIX SAMPLE ARROWS SHOWING DIFFERENT FEATHERS
_A_ is a far-flying steel-pointed bobtail, very good in wind. _B_ is another very good arrow, with a horn point. This went even better than _A_ if there were no wind. _C_ is an Omaha war and deer arrow. Both heads and feathers are lashed on with sinew. The long tufts of down left on the feathers are to help in finding it again, as th
ey are snow-white and wave in the breeze. The grooves on the shaft are to make the victim bleed more freely and be more easily tracked. _D_ is another Omaha arrow with a peculiar owner's mark of lines carved in the middle, _E_ is a bone-headed bird shaft made by the Indians of the Mackenzie River. _F_ is a war arrow made by Geronimo, the famous Apache chief. Its shaft is three joints of a straight cane. The tip is of hard wood, and on that is a fine quartz point; all being lashed together with sinew.
"White-men glue them on, and Injuns lash them on," replied Yan,quoting from memory from "that book."
"Which is best?"
"Glued on flies better, but lashed on stands the weather better."
"Why not both?"
"Have no sinew."
"Let me show ye a trick. Where's yer glue an' linen thread?"
These were brought, whereupon Si added: "'Pears to me ye oughter putthe feathers on last. Better cut the notch first."
"That's so; we nearly forgot."
"_You_ nearly forgot, you mean. Don't drag _me_ in the mud,"said Sam, with owlish dignity. A small saw cut, cleaned up and widenedwith a penknife, proved the best; a notch one-fourth inch deep wasquickly made in each arrow, and Si set about _both_ glueing_and_ lashing on the feathers, but using wax-end instead ofsinew.
Yan had marked the place for each feather so that none would strikethe bow in passing (see Cut page 183). He first glued them on,then made a lashing for half an inch on the projecting ends of thefeather-rib, and another behind, carrying this second lashing back tothe beginning of the notch to guard against the wood splitting. Whenhe had trimmed all loose ends and rolled the waxed thread well on thebench with a flat stick, the threads seemed to disappear and leavesimply a smooth black ring.
THE ARCHERY OUTFIT (Not all on scale)
I. The five-foot bow as finished, with sections at the points shown.
II. The bow "braced" or strung.
III. The bow unstrung, showing the loop slipped down.
IV. The loop that is used on the upper end of the bow.
V. The timber hitch always used on the lower end or notch of the bow.
VI. A turkey feather with split midrib, all ready to lash on.
VII. End view of arrow, showing notch and arrangement of three feathers.
VIII. Part of arrow, showing feathering and lashing.
IX. Sanger hunting arrow with wooden point; 25 inches long.
X. Sanger war arrow with nail point and extra long feathers; it also is 25 inches long.
XI. Quiver with Indian design; 20 inches long.
XII. The "bracer" or arm guard of heavy leather for left arm, with two laces to tie it on. It is six inches long.
* * * * *
Thus the arrows were made and set away for the glue to dry.
Next day Yan painted Sam's red and blue, his own red and white, todistinguish them as well as guard them from the damp. There was nowone more thing, and that was a quiver.
"Do the Injuns have them?" asked Sam, with a keen eye to orthodoxywhen it promised to cut short the hard work.
"Well, I should say so; couldn't live without them."
"All right; hurry up. I'm spoiling for a hunt. What are they made of?"
"Oh, 'most anything."
"Haven't got it."
"You're too fast. But some use Birch bark, some use the skin of ananimal, and some use canvas now when other stuff is scarce."
"That's us. You mind the stuff left off the teepee?"
"Do till we get better." So each made a sort of canvas bag shorterthan the arrows. Yan painted an Indian device on each, and they wereready.
"Now bring on your Bears," said the older boy, and feeling a sense ofcomplete armament, they went out.
"See who can hit that tree." Both fired together and missed, but Sam'sarrow struck another tree and split open.
"Guess we'd better get a soft target," he remarked. Then afterdiscussion they got a large old corn sack full of hay, painted on itsome rings around a bull's eye (a Buffalo's eye, Sam called it) andset it up at twenty yards.
They were woefully disappointed at first in their shooting. It didseem a very easy mark, and it was disappointing to have the arrows flysome feet away to the left.
"Le's get in the barn and shoot at that," suggested Sam.
"We might hit it if we shut the door tight," was the optimistic reply.As well as needing practice, the boys had to learn several littlerules about Archery. But Yan had some pencil notes from "that book"and some more in his brain that with much practice gradually taughthim: To stand with his heel centres in line with the target; his rightelbow in line with the arrow; his left hand fixed till the arrowstruck; his right thumb always on the same place on his cheek when hefired, and the bow plumb.
They soon found that they needed guards for the left arm where the bowstrings struck, and these they made out of the leg of an old boot (seeCut page 183), and an old glove to protect the fingers of the righthand when they practised very much. After they learned to obey therules without thinking about them, the boys improved quickly and soonthey were able to put all the arrows into the hay sack at twentyyards, increasing the distance later till they could make fairshooting at forty yards.
They were not a little surprised to find how much individuality thearrows had, although meant to be exactly alike.
Sam had one that continued to warp until it was much bent, and theresult was some of the most surprising curves in its flight. This hecalled the "Boomerang." Another, with a very small feather, travelledfarther than any of the rest. This was the "Far-killer." His bestarrow, one that he called "Sure-death," was a long-feathered Turkeyshaft with a light head. It was very reliable on a calm day, butapt to swerve in the wind. Yet another, with a small feather, wascorrespondingly reliable on a windy day. This was "Wind-splitter."
The one Yan whittled with the knife was called the "Whittler," andsometimes the "Joker." It was a perpetual mystery, they never knewjust what it would do next. His particular pet was one with a hollowaround the point, which made a whistling sound when it flew, and wassometimes called the "Whistler" and sometimes the "Jabberwock,""which whiffled through the tulgy wood and burbled as it came."
CORRECT FORM IN SHOOTING The diagram at bottom is toshow the centres of heels in line with target.]