CULTURE OF PEOPLE OE SOUTHEASTERN PANAMA 49 



has happily passed and has been followed by eonfederacies, as alluded 

 to in the sections on population. What formerly were weapons of 

 intertribal warfare have degenerated into accessories of the hunt. 

 Primitive armor and golden corselets, as seen by Barolome Hurtado 

 in 1516 on the island of Caubaco, and the thick matted armor of 

 cotton on the island of Cabo have long since disappeared. The blow- 

 gun with the tiny poisoned darts, though still made, is now employed 

 mostly in sport. The iron-pointed lance has superseded the blowgun, 

 and the iron-tipped arrow, together with the iron-head fish spear 

 and harpoon head are in general use. A trade gun, quite often out 

 of working order, frequently lends dignity if not efficiency to the 

 hunter. 



Boats and paddles. — Linked with a study of the weapons and 

 fishing paraphernalia of the native fisherman and boatman is the 

 local importance of water transport. As horses are unknown in 

 Darien, water craft and their methods of propulsion assume prime 

 significance. The Cuna and Choco boatmen from the interior vil- 

 lages of the Tuyra, Bayano, Chucunaque, and other rivers, stand 

 on the flattened, overhanging bow or stern of the dugout designed for 

 this purpose, and propel the craft by long poles. As the current is 

 swift, upstream work wherever possible is done at flood tide, for 

 the tides of the Pacific affect Darien streams long distances inland. 

 In coming down, the current is used sometimes in running rapids. 

 Such a " pirogua " requires two boatmen to pole it along, who stand 

 on the square-cut, flattened thwarts of the dugout. A native dug- 

 out schooner, " bongo," " ulo," carries its cargo ~of fruits, vegetables, 

 livestock, etc., as far as Panama City and may be laden on its return 

 trip with cases of nails, salt, bolts of cloth, and other goods bought in 

 trade. The pirogua differs from the cayuca or dugout canoe in that 

 it is truncated and has a platform for poling at both bow and stern. 



Toy models of native dugouts made by the Choco from balsa wood 

 (Cat. No. 272600, U.S.N.M.), similar in proportions to their big 

 dugouts, were collected by Dr. H. Pittier. The dimensions are 

 30 cm. (11.8 in.) in length, 6.4 cm. (2.5 in.) wide, and 3.1 cm. (1.2 

 in.) stern height. Models of " cayucas " made by the Tule (Cat. 

 No. 327578, U.S.N.M.) are fashioned from a block of hard wood 

 and are inaccurate in modeled proportions: 50.9 cm. (20 in.) in 

 length, 19.6 cm. (7.7 in.) beam, with a stern height of 12.7 cm. 

 (5 in.). 



The boat paddles employed by the natives of Darien are merely 

 paddles; although they are sometimes used as poles in extricating 

 a dugout from a river shallow, they never serve as clubs. Further- 

 more, but little variey is developed in the shape of the handles and 

 in types of paddle blades. 



