ii8 BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA The arrow is more important than the bow. Any one can make a bow; few can make an arrow, for, as a Seminole Indian ex- pressed it to Maurice Thompson, Any stick do for bow; good arrow much heap work, ugh." Hiawatha went all the way to Dakota to see the famous arrow-maker. In England when the bow was the gun of the country, the bow-maker was called a
- ' bowyer," and the arrow-maker a *' fletcher " (from the Nor-
man fleche, an arrow). So when men began to use surnames those who excelled in arrow-making were proud to be called the " Fletchers " ; but to make a good bow was not a notable achieve- ment, hence few took " Bowyer " as their name. The first thing about an arrow is that it must be perfectly straight. " Straight as an arrow " refers to the arrow itself, not to its flight ; that is always curved. The Indians made arrows of reeds and of straight shoots of viburnum or arrow-wood, and of elder, but we make better arrows out of the solid heartwood of hard pine for target use, and of hickory or ash for hunting. The arrow should be 25 inches long, round, and % of an inch thick, and have 3 feathers set as shown in Cut VI, about an inch from the notch. The feather B, that stands out at right angles to notch A, should always be away from the bow in shooting. This is called the cock- feather, and it is usually marked or colored in some way to be quickly distin- guished. Turkey and goose wing-feathers are the best that grow in our country for arrow-feathers. The Indians mostly use Turkey. With a sharp knife cut a strip of the mid-rib on which is the vane of the feather; make 3 pieces, each 2 to 3 inches long. White men glue these on to the arrow. The Indians leave the mid-rib projecting at each end and by these lash the feathers without glu- ing. The lashed feathers stand the weather better than those glued, but do not fly so well. The Indians use sharp flint arrow- heads for war and for big game, but for birds and small game they make arrowheads with a knob of hardwood or the knuckle- bone of some small animal. The best arrowheads for our pur- pose are like the ferrule of an umbrella top; they receive the end of the shaft into them and keep it from splitting. One of the best arrows I ever shot with was 28 inches long, 5-16 of an inch thick, had a ferrule head, and very small feathers.
