s, of
course, carry bows of different lengths, the Senecas having the longest.
The best of woods for making bows are Osage orange, hickory, ash, elm,
cedar, plum and cherry; some of these are strengthened with sinews and
glue. Almost every tribe has three sizes, the largest being used for war
purposes, and until an Indian can handle this war bow, he is not
considered entitled to be called a warrior.

Some claim the Sioux and the Crows make the best bows, although the
Apaches come close in the rank. When the Sioux bow is unstrung, it is a
straight piece of wood, while the Apaches and the Southern Indians make
a perfect Cupid's bow. The Crows often use elk horns as material, and
carve them beautifully. The Sioux, to make the straight piece of wood
more elastic, string the backs with sinews. Often these are beautifully
beaded and leathered, quite equaling, as a piece of art, the elaborate
elk horn bows made by the Crows. The Comanches' bows are covered with
sinew, much like those of the Apaches. The object of practice is to
enable the bowman to draw the bow with sudden and instant effect. It is
seldom that the Indian has need of throwing the arrow to a great
distance.

The bow of the Western Indian is small and apparently insignificant,
though its owner makes it very powerful, indeed. From his babyhood days
he has habituated it to his use, until it has become, as it were, a very
part of his nature. The Indian studies to get the greatest power out of
the smallest possible compass, and he finds a short bow on horseback far
more easily used and much more reliable in its execution. In the Far
West, bows are made largely of ash, and are lined with layers of buffalo
or deer sinews on the back. The Blackfeet have in use very valuable bows
of bone. Other tribes make use of the horns of mountain sheep. Sometimes
the bone bows will fetch very large sums of money, and deals have been
noticed in which the consideration for one of them was a pair of ponies,
with five pounds of butter thrown in as make-weight.

An athletic Indian on a fleet horse can do terrible execution with one
of these bows, which, even in these days of repeating rifles, is by no
means to be despised as a weapon. No one can estimate the force of a
throw from one of them when an artistic archer is in charge. The effects
from a wound from an arrow are so distressing that it is quite common to
accuse an Indian of using poisoned arrows, when possibly such a fiendish