Papua New Guinea’s Bows and Arrows

I am in the process of documenting a dying PNG language, and one of my consultants is the last traditional bow maker in the village. He still makes the bows in the style you consider to be pre-WWII. I am trying to document the bow-making process, but though I am familiar with compound bows, I’m not sure how best to document everything. I can say that the “string” is unique (though shared by other bows in the Madang and Sepik area): it’s an unbroken strip of bamboo from a specific species that has been scraped to a specific width and dried. The “string” is actually flat and wide (perhaps 1/4″ wide), and the base of the arrow is set against this band–there’s no notch on the arrows. This “string” is then tied to the bow’s ends with a special knot that looks nothing like what you have in your pictures. I have held a working bow of this nature (and own an old one from the Sepik), but I have not tried to pull them back all the way for two reasons: (1) I’m not sure I can! I estimate the draw weights as somewhere between 75-100 lbs. (2) If I can, it’s possible I might break them because I’m almost a foot taller than their owners. The arrows are made of bamboo (a different species than that used for the “string”), but the arrow heads are made of the hardened wood from a small species of palm (different from the specialized palm species used for the bow staves). There is a different plant used to tie the arrowheads into the bamboo shaft. The bow is finished with sap, I think, from another plant (not 100% sure on this part). I know this, the whole bow-and-arrow set is composed entirely of plant matter from the local forest and makes use of no fewer than 2 palm species, 2 bamboo species, and additional plant species, and possibly one more. From start to finish, the process takes at least a few months (including the drying of bow staves). Perhaps the most interesting aspect of their bow technology is the lack of fletching on arrows for hunting bows. They are aware of fletching, and it was claimed that small bows’ arrows make use of it, but the larger hunting bows use no fletching. The area has lost almost all of its larger game over the past 50 years, but when my consultants were young men, they used these bows to hunt game ranging from 5-200 lbs, including some of the world’s most dangerous game: cassowaries and wild boar. My consultants could shoot a cassowary dead at 30+ yards, which required a shot right at the spot where the quills of the vestigial wings can be seen. Any other shot would result in a life-threatening charge by the 6′ bird with dinosaur claws! I don’t understand how they are able to have accurate shots at such distances without fletching. I would love to have some guidance on how best to learn more about these bows and document their being made and their capabilities.