RoTH] WEAPONS: HUNTING AND FIGHTING 14:7 
selected of such a size that the smaller can be pushed inside the 
larger. This is done so that any curve in the one may counteract 
that in the other. A conical wooden mouthpiece is then fitted to 
one end, and sometimes the whole is spirally bound with the smooth 
black shining bark of a creeper (ARW, 147). In place of the two 
teeth being used as sights a bit of black wax may sometimes serve this 
purpose. Often no sights of either kind appear to be employed. 
Occasionally for the sake of ornament or perhaps for sale as “ curios” 
(Br, 141) a finely plaited basketwork covers the whole blowpipe. 
The vast amount of time and labor thus expended upon its decoration 
need cause no surprise when it is remembered that a hunter pre- 
serves a blowtube during his whole life, and boasts of its lightness 
and precision as we boast of the same qualities in our firearms (AVH, 
1, 453). Although manufactured by Makusi Indians (CC, 52), blow- 
pipes may be obtained by them in exchange from the Arekuna, Mai- 
ongkong, and Guinau, in whose territories, as already mentioned, the 
Arundinaria is met with (SR, 1, 425-426). Indeed, among the Are- 
kuna this appears the general and specially valued weapon, and only 
rarely did Schomburgk see them take bow and arrow when they went 
out hunting. Brett indicates that the Pomeroon Akawai also em- 
ployed blowpipes (Br, 140). Talking of the Demerara Arawak, 
Bancroft says: Blowing these arrows (in the blowpipe) is the prin- 
cipal exercise of the Indians from their childhood, and by long use 
and habitude they acquire a degree of dexterity and exactness at this 
exercise which is inimitable by an European and almost incredible 
(BA, 283). Another reference to Arawak and arrowheads [for their 
blowpipes] is given by Alexander (A, 1, 54). So expert are some of 
the bucks, reports Pinckard, in the use of this tube that at 12 or 14 
feet distance they will strike the arrow almost to a certainty upon 
the edge of a penknife stuck on the back of a chair (Pnk, 1, 488-489). 
The implement at its greatest elevation will send an arrow 300 feet 
(W, 96-100), but this may, perhaps, be dependent upon its length, 
which is variously computed at from 8 to 10 (KG, 1, 95-98), 12 to 14 
(SR, 1, 425-426), or even to 16 feet (A, 1, 54). 
118. The second type of blowpipe (pl. 35 A, 4) is made of a length 
of Arundinaria incased in the two split halves of the young stem 
of a certain tree after each half has been suitably scooped out. The 
whole is smeared with black wax and wound round with bark strip 
in a somewhat overlapping spiral. It has been described from the 
upper Rio Negro (KG, 1, 96). 
119. The third type of instrument (pl. 35 A, ¢) is used by all the 
Indian tribes on the upper Amazons, but is also met among the 
Buhagana (Betoya stock) of the Tiquie, a branch of the upper Rio 
Negro (KG, 1, 328). Bates’s description of the instrument in this 
