a Grass of the Tribe of Bambuseæ, &c. 561 
of this description are the Bambusec, of which the Curata is one of the most 
remarkable. But the disproportionate length of its first joint has no parallel 
among the other species of that tribe. As far as I could ascertain, the first 
joint indicates the growth of one period, which must be very short. The late- 
ral shoots are only formed when the stem begins to increase in diameter; we 
saw young stems, which at the height of twenty feet, and with a thickness of 
scarcely a quarter of an inch, had as yet no signs of articulations. 
The uncertainty which has so long prevailed as to the plant which furnishes 
the blowpipe-reed attests its scarcity: but this is more strikingly manifested 
by the circumstance that the other Indians denote the Maiongcong and Gui- 
nau tribes, who inhabit the only known regions where it grows, the Curata- 
people. Nature has taught the Indians of the Rio Negro and the Amazon, 
who have no intercourse with the Curata-people, to find a substitute in a 
slender palm, which they hollow out by steeping the stem for some days in 
water, when the internal structure may be easily pushed out by a stick, This 
slender tube is introduced into a larger palm in the same manner as the Curata 
into the stem of the Kunthia. Or sometimes the blowpipe merely consists of a 
single palm of any species, the interior of which has been removed and burnt 
out after having split the stem along its length into two parts. When this has 
been done and the inside has been polished, the Indian of the Rio Negro joins 
the two parts accurately together by an indigenous glue; and a mouth-piece 
of wood is added to it, which is considerably thicker than the tube. If it be 
considered what labour is required to accomplish this task by the aid only of 
a stone knife or an instrument made of the Bamboo, it becomes an obvious 
inference, that the Curata, which is so much better adapted for the purpose, 
does not grow in his neighbourhood. 
Limited only to a few spots, the constant demand for the reeds would soon 
exhaust the stock, if there were not two circumstances which render it very 
unlikely that they will be exterminated. These are, the numerous shoots 
which originate from a single rootstock, combined with the rapid growth of 
the shoots; and the great care which the Indian takes of his blowpipe. Even 
when in quest of game, and winding his way through thickets which would 
prove almost impenetrable to an unincumbered European, he carries his blow- 
pipe erect, and accomplishes his purpose without injury to his weapon. “A 
hunter," says Baron Humboldt, “preserves the same Sarbacan during his 
