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311a Over this disk of raw hide is secured a cover of buckskin about the rim of the buckskin cover is a series of slits and through these passes a buckskin thong by which the cover is secured. [?] the outside of the cover is painted a great variety of devices in red. green. and black. the Eagle in the center. is the Mexican eagle and is copied from the coin the snake is red. and the bird black with a green head and neck. This specimen is from the Mescalero Apache of New Mexico. at White Mountains and was procured by Capt. Brinkerhoff. in 1879

  Mr. Cattin says the Dakota (Sioux) shield was made from the skin of the Buffalo neck. hardened by glue made from the hoofs and Joints of the same animal. we are skeptical about this matter.  glue as every one knows is produced only by long boiling. and it is about absolutely certain that the Dakota nor any other indian possessed the means of making glue.  the process of "Smoking the Shields" is intended to toughen it. and is performed as Cattin describes it.  "A young man about to make a shield digs a hole in the ground two feet deep and as large as he intends to make his shield   In this pit he builds a fire. and over the hole he stretches by means of pegs driven in the ground. and [?] the skin taut. as it stretch up the small pegs are drawn out and again driven in so that the skin is always tight.  While the skin is thus shrinking the brave and his comrades dance about the shield singing and saluting the Great Spirit to make the shield effective
  A shield so made is it is said bullet proof unless the bullet strikes it squarely at right angles. when it will penetrate.
 Mr. Cattin gives a description of a "[?] whistle" which is a very  peculiar circumstance. and one which we believe is a little highly drawn he says that the chief comes the whistle and by blowing in and on the other end can sound "an advance" and in the other "a retreat" which is heard by the warrior in the heat of battle. all this sounds a good deal like a [?].  Such [?] whistles do not at  present exist at all.
  The time honored Bow and arrow is still in constant use with the indians of Dakota and Ojibway [?]  The metal and stone point is now obsolite [sic] with the Ojibway in a great measure.  The early arrows were as we shall see armed with stone points and in certain localities copper was procurable and was used for arrow points. and in