The only
wood which they can procure, not possessing sufficient elasticity
combined with strength, they ingeniously remedy the defect by securing
to the back of the bow, and to the knobs at each end, a quantity of
small lines, each composed of a plat or "sinnet" of three sinews. The
number of lines thus reaching from end to end is generally about thirty;
but, besides these, several others are fastened with hitches round the
bow, in pairs, commencing eight inches from one end, and again united at
the same distance from the other, making the number of strings in the
middle of the bow sometimes amount to sixty. These being put on with the
bow bent somewhat the contrary way, produce a spring so strong as to
require considerable force as well as knack in stringing it, and giving
the requisite velocity to the arrow. The bow is completed by a woolding
round the middle, and a wedge or two, here and there, driven in to
tighten it. A bow in one piece is, however, very rare; they generally
consist of from two to five pieces of bone of unequal lengths, secured
together by rivets and treenails.
The arrows vary in length from twenty to thirty inches, according to the
materials that can be commanded. About two thirds of the whole length
is of fir rounded, and the rest of bone let by a socket into the wood,
and having a head of thin iron, or more commonly of slate, secured into
a slit by two treenails.
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