CHAPTER XIX. 



INDIAN WEAPONS AND MODES OF KILLING GAME. 



THE BLOW-PIPE. 



E Indian, destitute of fire-arms, ranges through the 

 forest in chase of the fiercest and largest animals 

 which haunt its shade, armed with a slender tube, 

 and a quiver full of needle-like arrows. The tube, ten or 

 eleven feet long, is the celebrated gravatana, or blow-pipe ; 

 called also the zarabatana by the Spaniards. Slight as are 

 the arrows which are blown through this weapon, they will 

 penetrate the thickest hide ; and being tipped with a deadly 

 poison, carry death through the veins of the wounded animal 

 in the course of a few minutes. 



Blow-pipes are formed in various ways, for one, the stems 

 of a small palm, the triatea setigera, are used. Outside they 

 appear pointed, from the scars of the fallen leaves, but within 

 they have a soft pith, which soon rots in water, and is easily 

 extracted, leaving a smooth, polished bore. They vary from 

 the thickness of a finger to two inches in diameter. Each of 

 these stems is slender, the one of a size which may be pushed 



