146 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [BTH. ANN. 38 
grows hollow, nor is there the least appearance of a knot or joint 
throughout the whole extent. The natives (Macoushi) call it ourah. 
This of itself is too slender to serve as a blowpipe; but there is a 
species of palma, larger and stronger, and common in Guiana, and 
this the Indians make use of as a case in which they put the ourah. 
It is brown, susceptible of a fine polish, and appears as if it had 
joints 5 or 6 inches from each other. It is called samourah, and the 
pulp inside is easily extracted by steeping it for a few days in water. 
Thus the ourah and samourah, one within the other, form the blow- 
pipe of Guiana. The end which is applied to the mouth is tied 
round with a small silk-grass cord to prevent its splitting; and the 
other end, which is apt to strike against the ground, is secured by 
the acuero (Astrocaryum) fruit cut horizontally through the middle, 
with a hole made in the end, through which is put the extremity of 
the blowpipe (after the style of the “lip of a trumpet”). It is 
fastened on with string on the outside, and the inside is filled with wild 
beeswax. ... About 2 feet from the end through which the Indian 
blows there are fastened two teeth of the acouri, and these serve him 
for a sight... . The Indian on his return home carefully suspends 
his blowpipe from the top of his spiral roof, seldom placing it in an 
oblique position, lest it should receive a cast (W, 96-100). It was 
left to Schomburgk to discover the plant utilized for the inner 
tube, the Arundinaria schomburgkii Benth., the curata of the In- 
dians. This grows only in the country of the Guinau and Maiong- 
kong, in the upper Parima, whence these tribes are called the curata 
people (ScF, 288), and perhaps in the neighborhood of the sources 
of the Orinoco (SR, 1, 425-426). Von Humboldt had mentioned 
the reeds as coming from the foot of the mountains of Yumariquin 
and Guanaja. They are much sought after, even beyond the Orinoco, 
by the name of “ reeds of Esmeralda” (AVH, wu, 453). Having cut 
a suitable length, the Indian dries it over the fire, revolving it on its 
own axis until all the moisture is out, and then hangs it in the sun 
until it becomes of a yellow color. ... The then straight stem 
of a species of the Arecinea family of palms is left in water until 
such time as the pith is rotted, which is then pushed out with a stick 
and the Arundinaria driven in (SR, 1, 425-426). On the upper Rio 
Negro the inner tube is described as manufactured of arundinea and 
the outer from the paxiuba palm, /riartea exorrhiza (KG, 1, 95-98) ; 
but Wallace, on the lower reaches of this river, mentions both as 
being made from the /riartea setigera of Martius. The stems, the 
latter author states, are carefully dried in the house, the pith cleared 
out with a long rod made from the wood of another palm, and the 
bore rubbed clean and polished with a little bunch of roots of a tree 
fern pulled backward and forward through it. Two stems are 
