Yahi archery

---

Please re-enter recipient e-mail address es. You may send this item to up to five recipients. The name field is required. Please enter your name. The E-mail message field is required.

Please enter the message. Please verify that you are not a robot. Would you also like to submit a review for this item? You already recently rated this item. Your rating has been recorded. Write a review Rate this item: Preview this item Preview this item. Saxton T Pope Publisher: University of California Press, University of California, Berkeley.

English View all editions and formats Rating: Subjects Ishi, -- Ishi, -- Archery. View all subjects More like this Similar Items. Many kinds of feathers were used by Ishi on his arrows eagle, hawk, owl, buzzard, wild goose, heron, quail, pigeon, flicker, turkey, bluejay. He preferred eagle feathers but admitted that they were very hard to get.

While with us he used either the tail or pinion feathers from the domestic turkey. Like the best archers he put three feathers from the same w r ing on each arrow. The first process of preparing the feather was to separate its laminae at the tip and split the shaft down its length by pulling it apart. Only the strip forming the posterior part of the original quill was used. He placed one end of this strip on a rock, clamping his great toe firmly upon it, and pulled it taut with the left hand, while with a sharp knife he shaved the upper surface of the aftershaft or rib to the thinness of paper.

By scraping with an obsidian chip he now reduced it to translucent thinness, leaving no pith on it. Feathers so scraped are very flexible but the laminae tend to stand at an angle of University of California Publications in Am. Hav ing finished many feathers this way he collected them in groups of three, according to their similarity of form and color, and bound each group with a short bit of thread.

When ready to apply them to the arrow, these sets of three, each set from the same wing, were soaked in warm water. When soft, the feathers were shaken dry, separated, and each tested for its strength by pulling its two extremities. Then, gathering about half an inch of laminae with the tip of the aftershaft and holding this end securely, he ruffled the rest of the laminae back ward, in order to have a clear space over which to apply sinew r in the next stage. Each feather in turn was thus made ready. Very delicate deer tendons, having been split and soaked in water, were now chewed to a stringy pulp and drawn from the mouth in thin ribbons about a foot long.

One end he held by the teeth, the other was attached to the arrow by a couple of turns near the nock. He then placed each feather in succession in its position ; one perpen dicular to the nock, two at its opposite edges, making equidistant spaces between them. As he rotated the shaft, the tendon being held in his teeth, he bound the rib and a half inch of laminae together down to the shaft, smoothing all with his thumb nail at the last. The reversed position of the rest of the laminae at this point made his work easy. Having treated one arrow, he let it dry while he fixed each of the remaining four.

The next step was to draw the anterior extremity of the feathering down into position. Beginning at the last painted ring where the glue commenced, he stripped off the laminae in preparation for the appli cation of tendons. Again he spun out a ribbon of tissue, and setting each feather in place, holding the top one with his left thumb, and the other two with the first and second fingers respectively, he began bind ing with the sinew.

After proceeding a few turns, he released his hold and straightened each feather to its final position, which was about one-sixteenth of an inch off the direct line down the arrow, veer ing off slightly toward the concave side of the feather. Now, drawing the feathers tight and snug, he cut the rib about half an inch long and completed the binding by rotation, plus a final smoothing with his thumb nail. In applying the tendon, he was careful to make a close spiral, never overlapping his sinew except at the last few turns.

Each arrow, being thus feathered, was put in the sunshine to dry. After a number of hours he would pick up a shaft and by beating it gently against his palm, restore the laminae to their natural direction, fluffing Pope: Yahi Archery llo out the feathering. After having stroked the thoroughly dry feathers to settle them, he trimmed them by laying them on a flat piece of wood, using a straight stick as a ruler and running a sharp chip of obsidian along this edge. Obsidian flakes are quite as sharp as a good razor, and cut feathers better. Sometimes they were cut in a slightly concave line, and usually no trimming was done near the nock, but the natural curve of the feather tip was left here, making a graceful finish to his work.

Instead of standing perpendicularly to the shaft, as has been recommended by our ancient English archers, Ishi s feathers were set at an angle to his arrow and tended to fall or lie closer to the shaft after much use or being carried in the quiver. This position does seem to have the advantage, however, of giving a better spin to the arrows in flight, which, of course, tends toward greater accuracy.

Some of Ishi s feathers were not more than three inches long, and those on his exhibition or war arrows were the full length of a hawk s pinions almost a foot. In none of his arrows which were made in the wilds was there any evidence of glue between the feather and arrow shaft ; but while with us he occasionally ran a little glue beneath his feather after binding it on. In his native state, he seems to have used no protective over the sinew to keep out moisture not even fat nor did he apply any finish or varnish to the surface of his shafts.

The arrow in the condition just described was now accurately cut to a certain length. His method of measurement was to hold the butt against his own sternal notch and then, reaching along the shaft with his left hand, almost in his shooting position as described below , he cut the shaft off at the end of his left forefinger.

This gave a length of about twenty-nine inches. The cutting of the shaft was done with a filing motion of an obsidian knife. Later he used a bit of broken hack-saw. The point of the shaft was then slightly rounded, and if intended for small game, bound with sinew. If obsidian points were to be used, a notch similar to that intended for the bow string was made, and so cut that when the arrow was drawn on the bow, this notch was in a perpendicular position. The idea in placing the head, in a vertical plane was that in this position it entered between the ribs of an animal more readily.

With the old English archers, the broad-head was placed in the same plane with the nock, for the same mistaken reason. With the English, of course, the bow is held almost perpendicular, while with most Indians, as with Ishi, the bow has a more or less horizontal position in shooting. Flint Ishi designated as pana k aina and seemed to like it because of its varied colors. But hahJca or obsidian was in commoner use, and among the Yahi it served even as money.

Boulders of obsi dian were traded from tribe to tribe throughout his country. They probably came by way of the Hat Creek Indians from Shasta County and other districts where this volcanic glass was prevalent. A boulder of obsidian was shattered by throwing another rock on it. The chunks thus obtained were broken into smaller size by hold ing a short segment of deer horn or piece of bone against a projecting surface, and smartly striking it a glancing blow with a stone. The resulting flakes of obsidian best suited for arrowheads were roughly three inches long, an inch and a half wide and half an inch thick.

Selecting one of these, according to its shape and grain, he began the flaking process. Protecting the palm of his left hand by means of a piece of buck skin, and resting the left elbow on the left knee, he held the obsidian tightly against the palm by folding his fingers over it. The flaker was a piece of deer horn bound to a stick about a foot long.

Holding this instrument securely in his right hand, the stick resting beneath the forearm for leverage, he pressed the point of the horn against the obsidian edge with vigor, and fractured or flaked off a small bit. By reversing the position of the obsidian in his hand and attacking the opposite edge with the flaking tool, repeating in a painstaking way this manceuver after several flakings, he slowly fashioned his arrow point, making long deep chips or light finishing flakes, as the condi tion required.

He used deer horn for the heavier work, but while with us he chiefly employed a soft iron rod three-sixteenths of an inch in diameter and eight inches long, having a handle or padding of cloth 5 Compare the article by N. Talil Archery bound about it for a distance of six inches. The tool must be a sub stance that will dent slightly and thus engage the sharp edge of obsidian. Tempered steel utterly fails to serve this purpose. His flaking tools were shaped something like a screw driver, only rounded instead of square at the point. These he filed quite sharp. When the obsidian had assumed the desired triangular shape, he exchanged his buckskin pad for a sort of thumb-piece of the same material.

Hold ing the arrow point firmly on this with the left index finger, he selected a small flaking tool about the side of a shoemaker s awl, made of a wire nail driven into a wooden handle, and fashioned the notches near the base of the arrowhead by pressing the point of the flaking tool against the ball of the thumb. To make a head of this type required about half an hour. He made them in all sizes and shapes. Large spike-like heads were for gift arrows and war.

Apparently it was Yahi custom to do most of the making of bows and arrows away from the camp, in secluded spots particularly favor able to this employment. At least this was true of the making of arrowheads; partially so, no doubt, because of the danger entailed, and partially because it was strictly a man s job. Ishi said that the men congregated in a circle, in a warm sunny place, painted their faces with black mud to keep the flying flakes out of their eyes, and maintained silence either for ceremonial pur poses or to avoid getting pieces of flint or glass in the mouth.

Among their theories of disease, the one which they most usually invoked was the supposed presence of bits of obsidian or spines of cactus and similar sharp objects in the system. The medicine man gave support to this theory, moreover, by the "magical" extraction of such objects from his patients, by means of sucking the painful spot. If by chance a bit of glass flew in the eye while flaking arrowheads, Ishi would pull down his lower ej r elid with the left forefinger, being careful not to blink or rub the lid.

Then he bent over, looking at the ground, and gave himself a tremendous thump on the crown of the head with the right hand. This was supposed to dislodge the foreign body from the eye. After much close work he frequently suffered from eyestrain head ache. His distant vision was excellent, but like many Indians he was astigmatic.

He also complained of fatigue and cramp in his hands after prolonged flaking. When firm, the point was further secured by binding it with sinew, back and forth, about the tangs and around the shaft. After drying, this secured the head very firmly and was quite smooth. These heads frequently were ke"pt in a little bag of skin, and not attached to the arrow till a few hours before the expected hunt. Extra heads were kept in readiness to substitute for those broken during use. Large oval blades were bound on short handles and used as knives. Still larger blades of the same type, on a long handle, were used as spears.

After some experience in shooting at targets, Ishi devised a sub stitute for the regular target arrow pile, or head.

He made blunt points from thin brass tubing or steel umbrella sticks, cut into one inch lengths. He filed these with deep transverse notches across one end and pounded this portion into a blunt conical shape. These heads he set on his shafts with glue. The extra arrows he kept covered with a skin and bound with buckskin thongs, and he carried them slung over his shoulder. His quiver, now in the University Museum, was made from the skin of an otter, the fur side out, and the hair running upward. It measures 34 inches in length, 8 inches in width at the upper end, and 4 inches at the lower.

The skin had been removed whole, save for an incision over the buttocks. The hind legs had been split and left dangling, wiiile the fore legs were tw r o sheaths of skin inverted within the quiver. The mouth was sewn with tendon, and the split tail served as a carrying strap. Four punctures in the animal s back showed where the toggles of a salmon spear had entered and had had exit, indicating its method of capture.

A strip of buckskin was also stitched to the outlet of the quiver, and, running inside, was again stitched two-thirds of the way down. Its use seems to have been as a carrying strap.

Yahi archery

Yahi Archery Besides his arrows he carried his bow in the quiver, and slung all over the left shoulder. It was not easy to extract arrows from the quiver quickly, so it was customary to carry a few in the hand. These, during the act of shooting, Ishi either laid on the ground or held beneath his right arm.

Owing to his peculiar method of shooting, this did not interfere when he drew his bow. Taking his bow from the quiver, he placed the lower end on his partially flexed left thigh. While he held the bow by the center with the left hand its back was down hi s right hand caught the string between forefinger and thumb. The other fingers held the upper end near the nock.

Now, depressing the handle and bending the bow, he slipped the loop of the string over the nock. If, perchance, the string were too long, he unstrung the fchi s tow hand. When strung, the distance between the string and the hand grip was about four and a half inches. He then would place four or five arrows beneath his right arm, points to the front, leaving one in the hand.

Holding the bow diagonally across the body, the upper end to the left, he "nocked" his arrow by lay- University of California Publications in Am. It crossed the middle of the bow where the first and second fingers of the left hand received it and held it from slipping ; it was also a little distance away from the bow.

This refinement of technique was necessary to avoid rubbing the feathers, which were longer than the space between the bow and the string. The bow itself he clamped in the notch between the thumb and fingers of the left hand. He did not grip it tightly, even when full drawn. It poised in this notch, and even when the arrow was released it was only retained from springing from the hand by a light touch of his fingers.

Some Indians, he said, had a little strap on the handle to prevent the bow jumping out of the hand. The arrow, when full drawn, rested on the bow, steadied in position by the slight touch of his thumb on one side, the middle finger tip at the other.

Item Preview

When the arrow left the string, at the moment of release, the bow revolved, or turned over completely, in his hand, so that the back of the bow was toward him. Ishrs release The arrow release the letting fly of the arrow was a modification of that known as the Mongolian type. That is, he "drew" the bow with the right thumb flexed beneath the string.

On the thumb nail he laid the end of the middle finger, to strengthen the hold. The index finger, completely flexed, rested on the arrow to keep it from slipping from the string. The extremities of the feathers, being near the nock, were neatly folded along the shaft in the grip of these fingers, to prevent them from being ruffled. Ishi knew of several releases, saying that certain other tribes used them. The primary type, that where the arrow butt is gripped between the thumb and the flexed forefinger, he said certain Indians used, and it seemed to be a criterion of strength.

These were determined and named by E. He draws the arrow by pinching it between his thumb and flexed forefinger. This is not a strong grip on the arrow, though practice undoubtedly strengthens the hold. No robust archery, according to English standards, has ever been done with this release. Yet it is the only one reported from many primitive peoples, perhaps even the method most commonly followed by uncivilized tribes.

The Secondary release is similar, but the middle finger assists in the pull by pressing on the string. The Tertiary release holds the arrow between the thumb and straightened forefinger. It may also place other fingers on the string to assist in the pull. The Mongolian or Asiatic release is chiefly used with the composite bow, and consists of pulling the string with the flexed thumb, more or less supported by the other fingers, while the arrow is merely steadied in position by contact with the forefinger, and by being held in the angle between the thumb and forefinger.

This method reaches full effectiveness when a sharp-edged thumb ring is worn to engage the string. The Mediterranean release was known to the ancients and is that used in English archery and by the Eskimo. The first three fingers, unassisted by the thumb, draw the string, while the engaged arrow rests between the first and second fingers.

Tshi s release is of peculiar interest because its precise type has never been described before ; also because the fundamental method of which it is a variety, the Mongolian, has until now not been reported in America. A series of tests of the comparative strength of these various arrow releases, made by the writer with a spring scale attached to an arrow and cord, yields the following average pulls: Primary, with an arrow having a grip or notch in the end to assist the draw, 35 pounds.

Mongolian, with a Japanese-type shooting glove to protect the thumb, 55 pounds. Bulletin of the Essex Institute, Salem, xvn, , As Ishi drew with the back of his hand uppermost, he extended his bowarm horizontally and kept it straight, midway between a lateral and forward position.

Main Content

His right hand he drew till its back came beneath his chin, the end of his radius touching the top of his sternum. Thus he looked straight along his arrow with both eyes open. In this position his eyes were considerably above the nock of the arrow and he therefore had to allow for over-shooting his mark. He changed the position of his drawing hand for different ranges.

For near shots, his right hand was often drawn as high as his mouth. His extreme length of draw was not over twenty-six inches, while for small game and near shots he shortened this to eighteen or twenty inches. He never drew any shaft to the head. In drawing, his right arm was held close to the body, while the shoulder was markedly elevated.

This gave him a hunched appearance, but it permitted him to hold arrows under his arm, and in other ways must have favored his peculiar mode of shooting. It also threw his right arm and fore arm into the same plane with his bow. Before making any careful shot it was his invariable habit to glance down his arrow and straighten with his fingers any slight curvature that might be present. Nocking, drawing, aiming, and releasing, all were done within three seconds. He dwelt on his aim about a second, and shot entirely by intuition, not by point of aim.

For long shots he attempted to assist the flight of his arrow by quickly pushing forward his bow arm as he shot. A point blank range is that condition in aiming where the tip of the arrow seems to rest on the object to be hit. With him this was about fifty yards, and at over sixty yards his bow hand obscured his vision, so that he first aimed, then further elevated his bow hand before releasing.

With the English method of shooting, where the arrow lies at the left of the bow, the hand does not interfere with the vision, unless in shots of more than a hundred yards, because the left eye can see past the hand. After discharge of his arrow, Ishi maintained his shooting position for a second, as good archers always do. He preferred to shoot kneel ing or squatting; this seems to have been the best posture for game shooting. In kneeling, he usually placed his right knee on the ground.

Yahi Archery Shooting with us, especially at targets, he stood facing the target, or turning his left side slightly toward it. His position was rather insecure, knees flexed a trifle, feet about four inches apart. His body he held quite erect, though in stalking game he shot from a crouching position. He never used a wrist guard or "bracer" on his left arm to pro tect it from the string, although he nearly always pulled up his shirt sleeve.

This was to avoid striking any clothing w r ith the string, which would check the flight of the arrow. At times the string did strike his forearm, and bruise it, and after prolonged shooting his left wrist was often sore and ecchymosed. Leather protection for his forefinger he sometimes used in target shooting, but neither the glove nor bracer seemed needed for the intermittent shooting during a hunt. In nocking his arrow, he paid no particular attention to the cock feather, or that opposite the nock. It rested against the bow as often as away from it.

With nearly all modern archers, this is considered very bad technique. Since most of the feathers were soft, this however did not seem much to disturb the flight of the arrow. That the American Indian was a good shot is conceded by all who know him, and fiction makes him out an incom parable archer, capable of deeds outrivaling those of William Tell and the redoubtable Robin of Sherwood Forest. But no authentic scores exist. It is therefore a privilege to have been able to compare the shooting of an unspoiled American Indian w r ith that of modern archers.

So far as target shooting is concerned, it is well known that the greatest archer of all times was Horace Ford of England, whose records of were not approached by any in history, and have not been surpassed since. There are two well recognized rounds in archery. The English or York round consists in shooting six dozen arrows at one hundred yards, four dozen at eighty yards, and two dozen at sixty yards, and adding the score thus attained.

The American round consists in shooting thirty arrows at each of the distances, sixty, fifty, and forty yards. The central ring or gold is nine and one-half inches in diameter, while University of California Publications in Am. Their values are 9, 7, 5, 3, 1 points. Because of the great distance, and his inability to hit the target often enough to warrant compiling a score, Ishi seldom shot the York round. But we have many records of his scores at the American round. It must be conceded that an archer may be a poor target shot and yet at the same time be a practical and accurate archer in hunting.

Ishi s best scores at the American round are as follows, 30 arrows being shot at each distance: Rendtorff, and is thus recorded: My own best round is 88 hits, score. At ten and twenty yards Ishi was proportionately much more accurate, and while not consistent, he could hit objects three or four inches in diameter with such frequency that it was a commonplace event.

Out of every five arrows, one or two surely would reach the mark. In his native state, his targets were small bundles of straw about the size of a rabbit or quail, or he shot at a small hoop in motion. At shooting on the wing or at running game, he did not seem to be correspondingly adept. At so-called turtle shooting, or shooting up in the air and having the arrow strike the object in descent, he was not proficient. In rapid shooting he could just discharge his third arrow while two were in the air; unlike the alleged performance of Hiawatha, he could not keep ten shafts aloft at once.

Catlin reports that the Mandans could keep eight arrows in the air at one time. Yahi Archery Ishi s greatest flight shot was yards. No doubt had he prepared himself for distance shooting he could have surpassed this ; but using his pound hunting bow and the lightest arrow in his quiver, this was his extreme length.

After Ishi s death, I shot his bow, with an espe cially light arrow with a closely cropped feather, a distance of yards. The greatest modern shot was that done by Ingo Simon, at La Toquet, France, in , of yards, with a very old Turkish com posite bow. The greatest recorded flight shot with the English long bow was made by John Rawlins in , a distance of yards.

The best American flight shot is yards, done by L. Shooting a six-foot yew bow weighing 75 pounds with a flight arrow, my own best shot is yards. To ascertain the casting power of what Ishi considered an ideal bow, I had him select one that he considered the best, from the entire num ber in the Museum.

This was a Yurok bow of yew heavily backed with sinew and corresponded closely in proportions to those of his own make. After warming it carefully and bracing it, Ishi shot a number of light flight arrows. His greatest cast was only yards. Its weight was less than.

Besides the fact that Ishi, in common with all savages, failed to understand the optics and ballistics of archery, his arrows were of such unequal weight and dissimilar shape and size, that it is not sur prising that his markmanship was erratic. A difference of ten grains in the weight of a shaft, or a slight difference in the height of the feathers, will cause an arrow shot sixty yards to fly several feet higher or lower than its predecessor.

The length of time required for Ishi s hunting shafts to fly yards was 4 seconds. The angle of trajection was 30 degrees. The weight of these arrows was 1 ounce ; their power of penetration was sufficient to pierce our target, which consisted of a piece of oil cloth, 2 gunny sacks, and 4 inches of straw target, entirely traversing these bodies. A steel hunting point, shot from 40 yards, readily penetrated an inch into pine. On striking a tree, the entire point and an inch of the shaft were often buried in the trunk. The angle of elevation necessary for his arrow to fly one hundred yards is much greater than that needed for our target arrows.

Return to Book Page.

Find a copy in the library

Preview — Yahi archery by Saxton T. Yahi archery by Saxton T. Kindle Edition , 55 pages. Published October 13th first published October 1st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Yahi archery , please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Stan Carlson rated it really liked it Mar 30, Matt Donovan rated it it was amazing Sep 07, Chad rated it liked it Sep 02, Gillian rated it it was amazing Jan 18,

• Elections 2012: Abstention ou complicité ? (French Edition)
• Fae (A New Adult Fairy Tale) (Chosen Book 1)
• Half in Love [Willie Krenshaw] (Siren Publishing Classic)
• Theodor Däubler: Zum 50. Todestag des Dichters (German Edition)
• Humphrey Slocombe Ice Cream Book