Bows

[Dayna Bowker Lee]

Among the Caddo, cha-wíh is the word for both bow and bois d'arc tree, the
material from which Caddo bows were and still are constructed.


----- Original Message -----
From: David Costa <pankihtamwa at earthlink.net>
To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2001 12:27 AM
Subject: Re: Bows


> /bihi'/ is the Chickasaw word for 'mulberry', and this is probably cognate
> with Alabama /bihi/. Apologies if I mentioned this already, but a similar
> semantic connection is found in Shawnee & Miami as well; in Miami, 'bow'
is
> /mihtekwaapa/, while 'mulberry tree' is /mihtekwaapimishi/, literally 'bow
> tree'. 'Mulberry' in Miami is /mihtekoopimini/ (Shawnee /mtekwaapimina/),
> literally 'bow berry'. I guess the reason for the connection is that
> mulberry wood was favored for making bows?
>
> Dave Costa
>
>
> ----------
> >From: Koontz John E <John.Koontz at colorado.edu>
> >To: <siouan at lists.colorado.edu>
> >Subject: Re: Bows
> >Date: Tue, Aug 7, 2001, 11:53 pm
> >
>
> > 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.
> >
> >
> >