Bow Item Number: 1885.66.25 A-D from the MAA: University of Cambridge
Four bows.
A) A sinew fronted bow with curved nocks. The grip is made from hide, and the bow is still strung with twisted sinew wrapped in fur covered leather, portions of which have worn off.
B) A sinew fronted bow with curved nocks. The grip ismade from hide, and the bow is still strung with twisted sinew.
C) A wooden bow which is mainly curved at the nock ends. The nocks have points which have slight flanges to hold the string in place. The bow has fairly wide flattened arms which are contracted at the grip. The bow lacks a string.
D) Long un-bent bow made from fine-grained wood with notched nocks and slightly flared arms which contract at the grip. The grip is cherry bark lashed round, with a large tuft of reddish hair. Down the centre of the back of the bow a groove extends to the nocks. In cross-section the back edge is flat and the front- edge is curved. The bow string is made from twisted sinew and is broken.; Good
A) and B) are similar to the sinew-backed bows used throughout California and the Great Basin, however the fact these are sinew-fronted suggests an alternative provenance. However a label on B) does give a Californian provenance. C) Bears a small label with Vancouver Island written in what appears to be Hepburn' s hand. This provenance corresponds with that for a similar bow at the British Museum, described in J.C.H.King' s Artificial Curiosities 1981, page 86, Bow 103. This bow, collected on Cook' s third voyage has been assigned the provenance of Kwakiutl. D)The bow has Neah Bay, W.T. written in Hepburn' s hand suggesting a Makah origin (G.Crowther). The original European tribal names and, where possible, current tribal names have both been given in separate GLT fields.; Bows were mainly used for hunting, those from the Northwest Coast would have been used for birds, small mammals, and sea otters.; Collected by: Hepburn.J.E