296 EXCURSIONS IN NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA. Cuap. XI. 
winged with a little oval mass of samaiima silk (from the seed-vessels or 
the silk-cotton tree, Eriodendron samaiima), cotton being too heavy. The 
ball of samatima should fit to a nicety the bore of the blow-pipe ; when 
it does so, the arrow can be propelled with such force by the breath, 
that it makes a noise, almost as loud as a pop-gun, on flying from the 
muzzle. My little companion was armed witha quiver full of these 
little missiles, a small number of which, sufficient for the day’s sport, 
were tipped with the fatal Urari poison. The quiver was an ornamental 
affair, the broad rim being made of highly-polished wood of a rich cherry- 
red colour (the Moira-piranga, or red-wood of the Japurd). The body 
was formed of neatly-plaited strips of Maranta stalks, and the belt by 
which it was suspended from the shoulder was decorated with cotton 
fringes and tassels. 
We walked about two miles along a well-trodden pathway, through 
high caapoeira (second-growth forest). A large proportion of the trees 
were Melastomas, which bore a hairy yellow fruit, nearly as large and as 
well flavoured as our gooseberry. The season, however, was nearly 
over for them. The road was bordered every inch of the way bya 
thick bed of elegant Lycopodiums. ‘An artificial arrangement of trees 
and bushes could scarcely have been made to wear so finished an 
appearance as this naturally decorated avenue. The path at length 
terminated at a plantation of mandioca, the largest I had yet seen since 
I left the neighbourhood of Pard. There were probably ten acres of 
cleared land, and part of the ground was planted with Indian corn, 
water-melons, and sugar-cane. Beyond this field there was only a faint 
hunter’s track, leading towards the untrodden interior. My companion 
told me he had never heard of there being any inhabitants in that 
direction (the south). We crossed the forest from this place to another 
smaller clearing, and then walked, on our road home, through about 
two miles of cadpoeira of various ages, the sites of old plantations. The 
only fruits of our ramble were a few rare insects and a Japu (Cassicus 
cristatus), a handsome bird with chestnut and saffron-coloured plumage, 
which wanders through the tree-tops in large flocks. My little com- 
panion brought this down from a height which I calculated at thirty 
yards. The blow-pipe, however, in the hands of an expert adult 
Indian, can be made to propel arrows so as to kill at a distance of fifty 
and sixty yards. The aim is most certain when the tube is held 
vertically, or nearly so. It is a far more useful weapon in the forest 
than a gun, for the report of a firearm alarms the whole flock of birds 
or monkeys feeding on a tree, whilst the silent poisoned dart brings the 
animals down one by one, until the sportsman has a heap of slain by his 
side. None but the stealthy Indian can use it effectively. The poison, 
which must be fresh to kill speedily, is obtained only of the Indians who 
live beyond the cataracts of the rivers flowing from the north, especially 
the Rio Negro and the Japura. Its principal ingredient is the wood of 
the Strychnos toxifera, a tree which does not grow in the humid forests 
of the river plains. A most graphic account of the Urari, and of an_ 
expedition undertaken in search of the tree in Guiana, has been given by 
Sir Robert Schomburgk.* 
* « Annals and Magazine of Natural History,” vol. vii., p. 411. 
