Notes on the Story of Pahtahnkum

NOTES ON THE STORY OF PAHTAHNKUM

In this, in the smoking at the war-council, appears a curious superstition concerning the effect of a man's smoking upon his unborn child.

Another superstition appears in the idea that the killing of an Apache and throwing up of his accoutrements or scalp would cause rain.

I have a boy's bow and arrows just like those described in this story, bought of a Pima child.

War arrows were a yard long, with three feathers instead of two, and tipped with flint or, later, with iron. But even a wooden arrow would kill a deer.

Bows were made from Osage orange, cat-claw, or o a-pot; or, better still, from a tree called gaw-hee. Arrows from arrow-weeds. The Apache arrows were made of cane.

The Pimas were formerly famous for archery, and the shooting of bird on the wing, and of jack rabbits at full run while the archer was pursuing on horseback, were favorite feats.

The Apache well: I am told the old Arizona Indian wells were not walled up, and the sides were at such a slant that the women could walk down to the water and back with their ollas on their heads.

Wells are now obtained without great difficulty, but the water is salty and often alkaline and none too cool.