236 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 



tana, or blowpipe. This instrument is used by all the 

 Indian tribes on the Upper Amazons. It is generally 

 nine or ten feet long, and is made of two separate 

 lengths of wood, each scooped out so as to form one half 

 of the tube. To do this with the necessary accuracy 

 requires an enormous amount of patient labour, and con- 

 siderable mechanical ability, the tools used being simply 

 the incisor teeth of the Paca and Cutia. The two half 

 tubes, when finished, are secured together by a very 

 close and tight spirally-wound strapping, consisting of 

 long flat strips of Jacitara, or the wood of the climbing- 

 palm-tree; and the whole is smeared afterwards with 



Blow-pipe, quiver, and arrow. 



black wax, the production of a Melipona bee. The pijDe 

 tapers towards the muzzle, and a cup-shaped mouth- 

 piece, made of wood, is fitted in the broad end. A full- 

 sized Zarabatana is heavy, and can only be used by an 

 adult Indian who has had great practice. The young 

 lads learn to shoot with smaller and lighter tubes. 

 When Mr. Wallace and I had lessons at Barra in the 

 use of the blowpipe, of Julio, a Juri Indian, then in the 

 employ of Mr. Hauxwell, an English bird-collector, we 

 found it very difficult to hold steadily the long tubes. 

 The arrows are made from the hard rind of the leaf- 

 stalks of certain palms, thin strips being cut, and 



