294 SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



lozenge-shaped buck's-horn plates, and arrows tipped with fish-bones, 

 with palm spikes, and with hard wood. 



The zarabatana 2 " or blow-gun of the Guiana tribes is made in two 

 pieces, each of which has a semi cylindrical groove, so that the two form 

 a perfect tube when bound together with spiral strips of the pliable 

 iacitara wood. The outside is covered with wax and resin. A trumpet- 

 shaped mouthpiece directs the wind from the mouth and luugs into the 

 tube when the lips are suddenly opened ; the puff seems to be directly 

 from the chest. The blow-gun is 12 feet long and quite heavy. A 

 lighter gun, pucuna, of the same region, is made of a ten or fifteen feet 

 section of a reed (Arundinaria Schombergll), which grows in a limited 

 region on the Upper Orinoco, and has a length of over 12 feet between 

 the joints of its lower portion. This reed forms the ourah or barrel and 

 is slipped into a stick of palm (Ireartia sctigera) from which the pith 

 has been pushed out. The mouthpiece end is bound with silk grass 

 and the other end fortified with the half of an acuero nut, which also 

 forms the muzzle sight. The breech sight is made of two incisor teeth 

 of a cavy, which are secured with wax to the tube, the depression be- 

 tween the teeth being the valley sight. The gun is held in the left 

 hand, the elbow of that arm resting on the hip. The right hand grasps 

 the tube near the mouth piece, and the gun is raised by bending the 

 body. It weighs about a pound and a half — but a fraction of the 

 weight of the zarabatana. The arrow is made of the leaf rib of the 

 coucourite palm. It is 10 inches in length, about the size of a crow- 

 quill, is pointed by means of a fish-tooth scraper, and is fitted to the 

 bore with a pledget of wild cotton (Bombax ceiba). The arrows 

 depend, like the sumpits of the Dyaks, upon their sharp poisoned tips. 

 The poison is obtained from the icourali vine {Strycluios toxifera) and 

 a bitter root, the hyarri, to which are added poisonous ants, poison 

 fangs of snakes, and other things to give effect to the stuff, or to con- 

 ceal the real ingredients, as the composition is a secret in the hands of 

 the conjuror. The poison has an instantaneous numbing effect, the vic- 

 tim seeming void of pain or fear, dropping immediately, and dying in a 

 short time without a struggle. The arrows are kept in a "quiver" or in 

 a "roll," and each is cut deeply near the head, so that the poisoned por- 

 tion may break off in the wound. The range is from 50 to 100 yards. 

 A modification of the arrow is one in which, instead of the cotton, a piece 

 of bark is placed spirally on the stem of the arrow, terminating in a 

 hollow cone, which fills the bore when the cone is expanded by the wind; 

 a singular anticipation of the hollow-base Minie bullet, which is ex- 

 panded into the grooves of the rifle by the evolution of gases due to the 

 explosion of the powder. A piece or two of bark, laid spirally on the 

 arrow-shaft, feather the arrow, and make it revolve in flying. This is 

 equivalent to the rifling of a gun. This arrow is tipped with a small 

 piece of iron. 



2 « Wood, vol. ii, p. 583. 



