Hunting with the Bow and Arrow | Page 5

one of his
people. He called me _Ku wi_, or Medicine Man; more, perhaps,
because I could perform little sleight of hand tricks, than because of my
profession.

But, in spite of the fact that he was happy and surrounded by the most
advanced material culture, he sickened and died. Unprotected by
hereditary or acquired immunity, he contracted tuberculosis and faded
away before our eyes. Because he had no natural resistance, he received
no benefit from such hygienic measures as serve to arrest the disease in
the Caucasian. We did everything possible for him, and nursed him to
the painful bitter end.
When his malady was discovered, plans were made to take him back to
the mountains whence he came and there have him cared for properly.
We hoped that by this return to his natural elements he would recover.
But from the inception of his disease he failed so rapidly that he was
not strong enough to travel.
Consumed with fever and unable to eat nourishing food, he seemed
doomed from the first. After months of misery he suddenly developed a
tremendous pulmonary hemorrhage. I was with him at the time,
directed his medication, and gently stroked his hand as a small sign of
fellowship and sympathy. He did not care for marked demonstrations
of any sort.
He was a stoic, unafraid, and died in the faith of his people.
As an Indian should go, so we sent him on his long journey to the land
of shadows. By his side we placed his fire sticks, ten pieces of dentalia
or Indian money, a small bag of acorn meal, a bit of dried venison,
some tobacco, and his bow and arrows.
These were cremated with him and the ashes placed in an earthen jar.
On it is inscribed "Ishi, the last Yana Indian, 1916."
And so departed the last wild Indian of America. With him the
neolithic epoch terminates. He closes a chapter in history. He looked
upon us as sophisticated children--smart, but not wise. We knew many
things and much that is false. He knew nature, which is always true.
His were the qualities of character that last forever. He was essentially
kind; he had courage and self-restraint, and though all had been taken
from him, there was no bitterness in his heart. His soul was that of a
child, his mind that of a philosopher.
With him there was no word for good-by. He said: "You stay, I go."
He has gone and he hunts with his people. We stay, and he has left us
the heritage of the bow.

II
HOW ISHI MADE HIS BOW AND ARROW AND HIS METHODS
OF SHOOTING
Although much has been written in history and fiction concerning the
archery of the North American Indian, strange to say, very little has
been recorded of the methods of manufacture of their weapons, and less
in accurate records of their shooting.
It is a great privilege to have lived with an unspoiled aborigine and
seen him step by step construct the most perfect type of bow and arrow.
The workmanship of Ishi was by far the best of any Indian in America;
compared with thousands of specimens in the museum, his arrows were
the most carefully and beautifully made; his bow was the best.
It would take too much time to go into the minute details of his work,
and this has all been recorded in anthropologic records, [1] [Footnote 1:
See _Yahi Archery_, Vol. 13, No. 3, _Am. Archaeology and
Ethnology_.] but the outlines of his methods are as follows:
The bow, Ishi called _man-nee_. It was a short, flat piece of mountain
juniper backed with sinew. The length was forty-two inches, or, as he
measured it, from the horizontally extended hand to the opposite hip. It
was broadest at the center of each limb, approximately two inches, and
half an inch thick. The cross-section of this part was elliptical. At the
center of the bow the handgrip was about an inch and a quarter wide by
three-quarters thick, a cross-section being ovoid. At the tips it was
curved gently backward and measured at the nocks three-quarters by
one-half an inch. The nock itself was square shouldered and terminated
in a pin half an inch in diameter and an inch long.
The wood was obtained by splitting a limb from a tree and utilizing the
outer layers, including the sap wood. By scraping and rubbing on
sandstone, he shaped and finished it. The recurved tips of the bow he
made by bending the wood backward over a heated stone. Held in
shape by cords and binding to another piece of wood, he let his bow
season in a dark, dry place. Here it remained from a few months to
years, according to his needs. After