NATIVE BLOW-PIPES. 453 



Lower Orinoco, that the capuchin and cacajao rnonkeya 

 (Simia chiropotes, and Simla melanocephala) place them- 

 selves in a circle, and, by striking the shell with a stone, 

 succeed in opening it, so as to take out the triangular nuts. 

 This operation must, however, be impossible, on account 

 of the extreme hardness and thickness of the pericarp. 

 Monkeys may have been seen roDing along the fruit of 

 the bertholletia, but though this fruit has a small hole 

 closed by the upper extremity of the columella, nature has 

 not furnished monkeys with the means of opening the 

 ligneous pericarp, as it has of opening the covercle of the 

 lecythis, called in the missions " the covercle of the monkeys* 

 cocoa."* According to the report of several Indians, only 

 the smaller rodentia, particularly the cavies (the acuri and 

 the lapa), by the structure of their teeth, and the inconceiv- 

 able perseverance with which they pursue their destructive 

 operations, succeed in perforating the fruit of the juvia. 

 As soon as the triangular nuts are spread on the ground, 

 all the animals of the forest, the monkeys, the manaviris, 

 the squirrels, the cavies, the parrots, and the macaws, hastily 

 assemble to dispute the prey. They have all strength 

 enough to break the ligneous tegument of the seed; they 

 get out the kernel, and carry it to the tops of the trees. 

 " It is their festival also," said the Indians w r ho had r& 

 turned from the harvest ; and on hearing their complaints 

 of the animals, one may perceive that they think themselves 

 alone the lawful masters of the forest. 



One of the four canoes, which had taken the Indians t<; 

 the gathering of the juvias, was filled in great part with 

 that species of reeds (carices), of which the blow-tubes are 

 made. These reeds were from fifteen to seventeen feet 

 long, vet no trace of a knot for the insertion of leaves and 

 branches was perceived. They were quite straight, smooth 

 externally, and perfectly cylindrical. These carices come 

 from the foot of the mountains of Yumariquin and Guanaja. 

 They are much sought after, even beyond the Orinoco, by 

 the name of * reeds of Esmeralda.' A hunter preserves the 

 same blow-tube during his whole life, and boasts of its 

 lightness and precision, as we boast of the same qualities in 

 * ' La tapa del coco de monoa." 



