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 being seasoned he backed it with sinew. First he
made a glue by boiling salmon skin and applying it to the roughened
back of the bow. When it was dry he laid on long strips of deer sinew
obtained from the leg tendons. By chewing these tendons and separating
their fibers, they became soft and adhesive. Carefully overlapping the
ends of the numerous fibers he covered the entire back very thickly. At
the nocks he surrounded the wood completely and added a circular
binding about the bow.

During the process of drying he bound the sinew tightly to the bow with
long, thin strips of willow bark. After several days he removed this
bandage and smoothed off the edges of the dry sinew, sized the surface
with more glue and rubbed everything smooth with sandstone. Then he
bound the handgrip for a space of four inches with a narrow buckskin
thong.

In his native state he seems never to have greased his bow nor
protected it from moisture, except by his bow case, which was made of
the skin from a cougar's tail. But while with us he used shellac to
protect the glue and wood. Other savages use buck fat or bear grease.

The bowstring he made of the finer tendons from the deer's shank. These
he chewed until soft, then twisted them tightly into a cord having a
permanent loop at one end and a buckskin strand at the other. While wet
the string was tied between two twigs and rubbed smooth with spittle.
Its diameter was one-eighth of an inch, its length about forty-eight
inches. When dry the loop was applied to the upper nock of his bow
while he bent the bow over his knee and wound the opposite end of the