in
Number 3 will stick. But the rope and cincha are apt to slip and loosen,
unless the Scout takes a jam-hitch or Blackwall hitch around the hook of
the cincha. The rope should be kept taut throughout; and at the last
should be heaved tauter still, so that the diamond bites into the pack
well; and the end of the rope should be doubled back and tucked under so
that it will not drag, and yet can be easily got at.

[Illustration: THE SIMPLEST SINGLE DIAMOND]

The lash rope, or pack-rope, in the Army is one-half inch in size and is
fifty feet long; but a forty-foot rope is plenty long enough for Scouts.
A lair rope also is useful in packing. This is a three-eighths inch
rope, twenty-five or thirty feet long, by which the packs may first be
laired or tied up securely so that nothing shall shake out.

A pack for a burro may weigh from 200 to 250 pounds; but on a long,
rough trip 150 pounds is better. A pack is harder on a mule or a horse
than a rider is, because it never lets up.

Note 6, page 6: The Indian bow was only two and one-half to four feet
long, so that it could be carried easily when stalking or when on
horseback. The Sioux bow, four feet long, was an inch and a half wide at
the middle and an inch thick, and tapered to half an inch thick and half
an inch wide, at the ends. The Indian bow was made of wood, and of
mountain-goat horns, or of solid bones, glued together. The wooden bow
frequently was strengthened by having hide or sinew glued along the
back. Until they learned the knack of it, few white men could bend an
Indian bow.

The arrows were of different lengths, but each warrior used the one
length, if he could, so that he would shoot alike, every time. Each
warrior knew his own arrows, by a private mark--by length or by pattern
of stem or of feathers. Some tribes used two feathers, some three.
Scouts can mark their arrows, in the same way.

The bow and arrow are good Scout weapons. They give no noise. They do
not frighten animals or warn the enemy. They are not expensive. They can
be made on the spot. And it takes Scoutcraft to make them and to use
them successfully. As long as the Indians had only bows and arrows,
there was plenty of game for all.

Note 7, page 6: The lariat rope, or simply "rope," in the West, is
thirty-five or forty feet long. Usually it is five-eighths, four-ply
manilla, but the best are of braided rawhide. Those bought at stores
have a metal knot or honda through which the slipn