The Blow-Gun. 885 



health ; and the operator either is, or, what is more probable, sup- 

 poses himself to be, sick for some days after. 



"Thus it appears that the making the wourali poison is consid- 

 ered as a gloomy and mysterious operation, and it would seem that 

 they imagine it affects others as well as him who boils it; for an Indian 

 agreed one evening to make some for me, but the next morning he 

 declined having anything to do with it, alleging that his wife was 

 with child ! " 



To shoot the blow-gun, the Indian rests his left elbow against his 

 hip and grasps the tube with the palm of his hand upward ; then, 

 with the palm of the right hand downward, he grasps the tube near 

 the mouth-piece. This manner of holding his gun is similar to a 

 method, though a bad one, of aiming with a rifle. 



The birds and animals at which he shoots are generally in the 

 tops of the highest trees, often out of reach of any ordinary shot- 

 gun ; but the Indian rarely fails to bring them down. Throwing his 

 body backward, the gun rises till it has the proper elevation, when, 

 with a quick expiration of his lungs, the arrow leaves the tube with 

 a pop like that made by a cork quickly taken out of a small bottle. 



" It is natural," says Watterton, "to imagine that when a slight 

 wound only is inflicted the game will make its escape. Far other- 

 wise. The wourali poison almost instantaneously mixes with blood 

 or water ; so that if you wet your finger, and dash it along the poi- 

 soned arrow in the quickest manner possible, you are sure to carry 

 off some of the poison. Though three minutes generally elapse 

 before the convulsions come on in the wounded bird, still a stupor 

 evidently takes place sooner, and this stupor manifests itself by an 

 apparent unwillingness in the bird to move. This was very visible 

 in a dying fowl. 



44 Having procured a healthy, full-grown one, a short piece of a 

 poisoned blow-pipe arrow was broken off and run up into its thigh, 

 as near as possible betwixt the skin and the flesh, in order that it 

 might not be incommoded by the wound. For the first minute it 

 walked about, but walked very slowly, and did not appear the lea t 

 agitated. During the second minute it stood still, and began to 

 peck the ground ; and ere half another had elapsed, it frequently 

 opened and shut its mouth. The tail had now dropped, and the 

 wings almost touched the ground. By the termination of the third 



