6 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 79 



enemies it is placed outside the house on the hill, and the beats may 

 then be heard at a distance of several miles. The drum tundui is 

 beaten partly when the Jibaros drink the narcotics maikoa and 

 natema — in which case the object is to summon the spirits that 

 inhabit these sacred drinks — partly after a death, and lastly to give 

 the friends notice of an attack of enemies. In the latter case the 

 signaling consists of a series of short and fast beats at a time which 

 is at first forte or fortissimo and thereafter gradually diminishes. 

 When the friends in the other houses hear these beats they say: 

 Pakin77ioivui, " they are killing." Hence this whole mode of signal- 

 ing is called pakinmawui. As soon as the inhabitants in a house get 

 knowledge of or suspect the presence of enemies, and also during 

 the attack, if there is time for it, they try by beating the tundui to 

 summon their friends for rescue, and the signaling may sometimes 

 cause the enemy, fearing the arrival of help, to give up his evil 

 intention and take flight. 



The principal weapons of war of the Jibaro Indians are the lance 

 (ndnki) and the shield {taiiddra)^ the former being used for attack, 

 the latter for defense. Nowadays the Jibaros, besides these weapons, 

 also commonly use firearms (akdru) received from the whites, gener- 

 ally in exchange for a human head {fsdnfsa). The lance should be 

 made of the hard wood of the chonta palm, if possible the kind of 

 chonta cultivated by the Jibaros (called w^). The head is of pris- 

 matic shape and with the shaft forms a single piece. Anciently the 

 Jibaros also used lance heads made of the leg bones of the tiger or 

 the bear, which were fitted into shafts of chonta. A special power 

 is ascribed to the chonta lance, owing to the belief that the spiny 

 chonta palm itself is a demoniac tree, the seat of a spirit {wakdni or 

 igudnchi). The chonta lance therefore inspires not only men but 

 also the spirits and demons with fear. Hence at the tsdntsa feast 

 the head trophy is always kept tied to a chonta lance at those mo- 

 ments when it is not needed for the ceremonies. 



The shield is made of a special kind of wood which the Jibaros 

 call kamdka, the Quichua-speaking Canelos Indians lanchdma^ and 

 which has the property of being at once light and strong. It is 

 always round and wrought of one single piece, although the shields 

 are sometimes very large. During the days the Jibaro makes the 

 rough work he partly fasts, especially abstaining from eating a kind 

 of sweet potatoes {Convolvulus hatatas), called inchi by the Jibaros. 

 If he eats this fruit the shield will be attacked by moth, rot, and 

 become useless. This superstition is due to the fact that the sweet 

 potato has the same appearance as moth-eaten or rotten wood. 

 During the same days the Jibaro likewise abstains from cohabiting 

 with his wives, for if he has intercourse with a woman the shield 

 will burst or get crooked. 



