Bows

[Koontz John E]

On Thu, 2 Aug 2001 Zylogy at aol.com wrote:

> Here is what I was able to grab in a very quick run-though at UCSB library:

Thanks, Jess!  An association with 'back' is an interesting possibility I
hadn't thought of.  However, I think at least once of the cases you
mention is just chance.

> Koasati:          ittobihi
>                 "back" : atabi

My understanding of the Koasati term (per Karen Booker's note to Bob
Rankin that I mentioned before) is that it is a compound of itto 'tree,
wood' and bihi, which is probably the archaic term for 'bow', or at least
'blowgun' or 'weapon' or something like that, cf. Alabama bihi 'bow'.  In
other words, after bihi was transferred to 'gun', ittobihi was innovated
to refer specifically to 'bow'.  It doesn't have anything to do with
'back', I think.  I decided not to list it at the time since bihi doesn't
seem to bear any resemblance to the Siouan term.