night I asked War Eagle if he had ever known the use, by Indians,
of the stone arrow-head, and he said he had not. He told me that just
across the Canadian line there was a small lake, surrounded by trees,
wherein there was an island covered with long reeds and grass. All
about the edge of this island were willows that grew nearly to the
water, but intervening there was a narrow beach of stones. Here, he
said, the stone arrow-heads had been made by little ghost-people who
lived there, and he assured me that he had often seen these strange
little beings when he was a small boy. Whenever his people were camped
by this lake the old folks waked the children at daybreak to see the
inhabitants of this strange island; and always when a noise was made,
or the sun came up, the little people hid away. Often he had seen
their heads above the grass and tiny willows, and his grandfather had
told him that all the stone arrow-heads had been made on that island,
and in war had been shot all over the world, by magic bows.

"No," he said, "I shall not lie to you, my friend. I never saw those
little people shoot an arrow, but there are so many arrows there, and
so many pieces of broken ones, that it proves that my grandfather was
right in what he told me. Besides, nobody could ever sleep on that
island."

I have heard a legend wherein OLD-man, in the beginning, killed an
animal for the people to eat, and then instructed them to use the ribs
of the dead brute to make knives and arrow-points. I have seen
lance-heads, made from shank bones, that were so highly polished that
they resembled pearl, and I have in my possession bone arrow-points
such as were used long ago. Indians do not readily forget their tribal
history, and I have photographed a war-bonnet, made of twisted buffalo
hair, that was manufactured before the present owner's people had, or
ever saw, the horse. The owner of this bonnet has told me that the
stone arrow-head was never used by Indians, and that he knew that
ghost-people made and used them when the world was young.

The bow of the plains Indian was from thirty-six to forty-four inches
long, and made from the wood of the choke-cherry tree. Sometimes bows
were made from the service (or sarvice) berry bush, and this bush
furnished the best material for arrows. I have seen hickory bows among
the plains Indians, too, and these were longer and always straight,
instead of being fashioned like Cupid's weapon. Thes