GAXN] 



MAYA INDTAXS OF YUCATAN AND BRITISH HONDURAS 



23 



the whole of the mterior, with its pormaiKuit furnishings, is colored 

 a fine rich bro\\Ti. 



HUNTING 



It must be admitted that the Indian is no sportsman in the pur- 

 suit of game, the claims of the pot being always paramount. He 

 rarely shoots at a flying bird unless to fire into the midst of a flock 

 of parrots or wild ducks, and when after the larger game he waits 

 tiU he can deliver the contents of his gun point-blank hito some vital 



Fig. 4.— Powder hom an 



mboo used by the Indians. 



part. This practice may be duo partly to the limitations of his 

 weapon, which tiU recent years consisted of a muzzle-loading section 

 of gas pipe, nearly as dangerous when discharged to the hunter 

 as to the game, and partly to the fact that the bush is usually so 

 dense that an animal, if not shot at point-blank range, can not 

 be gotten at aU. It is probably not more than four generations 

 since the use of the bow and arrow died out among the Indians 

 in the western part of British Honduras, as old men among them 



Fig. 5.— Watertight box for caps, matches, or tinder, with corncob stopper. 



have told me that they could remember seeing a few still in use 

 when they were very young. The flint arrowheads, they said, 

 were obtained down the Mopan River. This seems quite possible, as 

 at Baker's, not far from Belize, there is an outcrop of flint, where, 

 judging by the great heaps of fresh-looking chips and rejects still 

 in existence, a considerable "factory" must have existed at a com- 

 paratively recent date. Some of these old men could still make 

 fairly serviceable bows and arrows, the heads of the latter being cut 

 from hardwood. 



