The modern coordinate of the Seri arrow is the bow, made preferably from a straight and slender branch of the palo blanco. A typical specimen is illustrated in plate XXX; it is 4 feet 9½ inches long, with the outer face convex and the inner face flat; greatest width 1¾ inches, narrowed to 1⅛ inches at the hand-hold; thickness at the hand-hold 1 inch, thinning to five-eighths inch at 8 inches from this point; tapering gradually in both dimensions toward the extremities, which are rudely notched to receive the cord (of mesquite-root fiber). The specimen illustrated has been cracked and repaired in two places; in one place the repair was effected by a rough wrapping of sinew, and in the other by slipping over the wood a natural sheath of rawhide from the leg of a deer. The specimen is of added interest in that it combines bow and nether fire-stick (“Strong-Kind-Mother”), one of the friction holes being worn out to the notched margin, and the other remaining in usable condition, as shown in the enlarged marginal drawing.[277] [277] Ordinarily the nether fire-stick is of soft and porous wood, flotsam palm-wood and water-logged pine being preferred. Compared with the delicately finished and graceful arrow, the typical bow is a rude and clumsy device; it displays little skill in the selection and shaping of material, and evidently involves little labor in manufacture—indeed, the indications are that more actual labor is spent in the construction of a single arrow than in the making of a bow, while the arrow-making is expert work, betokening craft of a high order, and the bow-making little more than simple handiwork of the lowest order. The comparison affords some indication of the genesis of Seri archery, and at the same time corroborates the independent suggestion that the arrow is of so much greater antiquity than the bow as to represent a distinct stage in cultural development—though the precise cultural significance of the bow is not easily ascertained.