TJie Blow-Giui. 883 



this the ball of cotton is replaced by a piece of thin bark wrapped 

 into a cone, which the puff of air expands and causes it to fit the 

 tube tightly without windage. Here is the first inception of the 

 Minie-ball. Longer pieces of the same bark are fixed along the 

 sides of the shaft, and these wings are twisted, so that the arrow 

 in its flight must rotate on its axis. Here we have the counterpart 

 of the rotating rifle-ball. 



The bore of all the blow-guns that I have examined is slightly 

 conical, tapering about four millimeters in bore from mouth-piece to 

 muzzle. Here we have the first choke-bores. It may be said that 

 they did not intend them to be such, for nature thus made the hollow 

 of their reeds. This is true ; but nevertheless their guns are choked, 

 and the arrows are always propelled toward the end having the 

 smaller diameter of bore. 



In the blow-gun, or sumpitan, of the Dyaks,* the analogy of 

 the blow-gun to modern arms is carried yet further in the appear- 

 ance of the bayonet. The sumpitan is armed at its muzzle with 

 a spear-head, which is bound to the side of the end of the tube so 

 as not to interfere with the flight of the arrow. This spear is sup- 

 posed to serve also for a front sight. 



The reader who is fond of tracing the analogues of our modern 

 arms, tools, and customs in the weapons, implements, and habits of 

 savages will be pleased to have found in the blow-gun the elements 

 of our most approved modern fire-arms. The blow-gun uses the 

 expansive force of a gas in propelling a projectile. It is of necessity 

 a breech-loader. It is choke-bored. It has rear and front sights. 

 It throws a projectile which, like the rifle-ball, rotates around its axis 

 in its flight, and like the Minie-ball, expands at its base so as to fit 

 closely the barrel through which it is propelled ; and lastly, it carries 

 at its muzzle the equivalent of a bayonet 



The wourali poison with which the arrows are tipped is made 

 by the conjurers of the tribe, and the secret of its preparation is 

 handed down from father to son. This, together with the fact that 

 all the neighboring tribes purchase this poison of the Macoushi- s. 

 in whose interest it is to keep the composition a secret, throws some 



• For an account of the sumpitan, see "The Head-Hunters of Borneo," by C.irl 

 Bock, London, 1881. 



