The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1878-09-13
Concluded on Sd page. |
The Bow and Arrow.
WHAT DOCTOR CARVER, THE GREAT RIFLE
SHOT, KNOWS OF ARCHERY.

WHAT DOCTOR CARVER, THE GREAT RIFLE
SHOT, KNOWS OF ARCHERY.
"You scc," said DR.. Carver, as he depos-
tied whole sheaf of brightly feathered
arrows on the table, took off his outrageous
felt and drew up chair, 81 must be shoot
ing something or other all the time. If it
isn't a Winchester it's a bow and arrow
Pretty they are, but most too fine. Fancy
things, these arrows, for handsome young
ladies to shoot on grass plats at straw tar
gets. Now an Indian arrow is good bit
longer, maybe thirty-two inches, and when
Sioux draws it chock up to the bow it
fairly huns when he lets it fly An Indian
arrow has grooves cut in it behind the barb,
that it to say, the ones they use in hunting,
so that the blood can flow, otherwise the
wood would spoil and swell. The fighting
arrows are nasty things. The barb is to
put on the shaft so that when it hits you
the steel, or old hoop iron, stays in the flesh
when you go to pull out the arrow. Dear
sakes! what ugly wounds have seen them
make. An Indian boy begins to handle a
light bow when he toddles, maybe four or
five years. His bow is taller than he is
He shoots at most anything around the
camp. When he is twelve he uses sharp
arrows. A boy must be strong at eighteen
to use a mans bow. Now, a white man
who takes an Indian bow for the first time
has all he can do to bend it. Itwants some
strength but more knack. The bow is made
straight. When it is strung the cord, even
when in tension, almost touches the bow
1t is thick, some four and half to five feet
long, that is their hunting bow, and has
extra stiffening by having snews pasted
on it,. have seen We-shessa- has ka, that's
the long man, and he was the best of the
Ogalla Sioux, kill an antelope with his
arrow at 1875 yards. We-shessa- has-ka was
nearly seven feet tall and good Indian
On horseback, broadside to buffalo, |
have more than once known that Indian to
send an arrow through.a big COW. The
arrow hung out on the other side. The
bow for horseback and for war is a trihe
shorter and may be sitter. You do not
draw the arrow to the eye, but catch aim
as | do when shooting from the hip. That
can only be acquired by long practice
The string is drawn by the clutch of the
Whole fingers, though some of the tribes
use the thumb and three fingers. The long
man could shoot an arrow in the air out of
sight, and so can Qhc doctor pointed to an
arrow buried up to the feather in the cell
ing OF our office, his own peculiar ornamen-
tation of the Forest and Stream sanctum)
II think that in a couple of months |
could get into perfect practice, for | used
to hold my own with any Indian on the
plains. Sometimes after had been shoot
ing with my Winchester, nm Indian would
come up and show his bow, and tell me his
Is I,,,tt i,, T
take his own bow and beat him at it. To
pass away the time when was at the Brook
Iyn Driving Park | bought an English bow
and arrow of Holberton, and soon got into
the trick it. Init blocks of wood thrown
into the air quite as often as missed them.
The English bows and arrows are fancy,
but good. would rather have IN old
Sioux one, made of hickory or ash, but the
boss bow ever owned was made of buffalo
ribs. An Indian carries his culver of
arrows over his right shoulder so that he
can get arrows quickly. When he has dis.
charged one arrow Qhe Doctor pronounccs
arrow with single letter; he calls it nm R)
with the same motion as he nses in pulling
the string he clutches another arrow. If
he shoots one hundred yards he has three
or four arrows in the air, all going at the
same time. It's great fun shooting at
bird with long tail that flies over the
prairie. Knock out his tail and his steering
apparatus is gone. have knocked the tail
out of many one and so caught him in my
hands when he tumbled See here. Talk
ing about these things just makes me long
to be back again on the plains New York
is II mighty good place, and l have made
lots of friends; but somehow want n horse
and II big field, with miles on miles before
me to gallop over and buffalo just IL showing
on the divide" And here DR.. Carver shut
his eyes and seemed lost for while in the
visions of rolling prairies in the iar-oif
Western wilderncss.-F Forest anil Stream.