placed at intevals, one being at the end of the curved part; and it
generally terminates at the bottom in an iron point. It is possible for
one of these waq[|c]exe[|c]aze to reach a man about 6 feet distant; and
even mounted men have been killed by them. Spears are used also in some
of the dances. Around the shaft is wrapped the skin of a swan or brant.
The end feather at the top is white; the other feathers are white or
spotted. The bent spear is no longer employed by the Omaha, though the
Osage, Pawnee, and other tribes still use it to a greater or lesser
extent.

Bows.

[Illustration: Fig. 323.--Omaha bow (za^{n}zi-mand[)e]).]

[Illustration: Fig. 324.--Omaha bow ([t]a[k]a^{n}-mand[)e])]

Bows (man-d[)e]) are of two kinds. One is the man-d[)e] or
za^{n}zi-mand[)e] (bow-wood bow), having an unbroken curve past the grip
to within an inch or two of each nock.[2] The other kind is the
[t]a[k]a^{n}-mand[)e], so called because it has deer sinew glued on its
back.[3] Bows were made of hickory, ash, ironwood, or za^{n}zi, the last
being greatly preferred. It is a wood resembling that of the Osage
orange, with which some persons confound it; but it is black and much
harder than the former, the Osage orange wood being yellow, soft, and
easily cut. The za^{n}zi is probably that which Dougherty[4] called
"bow-wood (<i>Maclura aurantiaca</i> of Nuttall)."

[Footnote 1: See First Annual Report of Bureau of Ethnology, 1879-'80;
1881, Pl. X, "Tolkotin cremation."]

[Footnote 2: This may be the "self-bow" mentioned in the American
Naturalist for July, 1886, p. 675.]

[Footnote 3: This is the sinew-backed bow above mentioned.]

[Footnote 4: Long's Expedition, op. cit., vol. I, p. 290.]

Bowstrings were made of the twisted sinew of the elk and buffalo, as
among other tribes.

Arrows.

[Illustration: Fig. 325.--Omaha hunting arrow.]

The arrows (ma^{n}) used in former days were of several kinds. The
hunting arrow, used for killing the buffalo, was generally about 2 feet
long, of the usual cylindric form, and armed with an elongate triangular
point, made at first of flint, afterward of sheet iron. The shoulders of
the arrow were rounded instead of angular, as in the ordinary barbed
form. The point, or head, was firmly secured to the shaft by deer sinew
wrapped around the neck of the point, and over that was spread some
cement, made in a manner to be afterward explained. The flight of the
arrow was equalized by three