roTH] WEAPONS: HUNTING AND FIGHTING 155 
so inordinately long and yet so carefully wound a string was in- 
tended to strengthen the bow, I found myself in the wrong; the 
Indians assured me that they used a long string only because, should 
it happen to be overstretched and broken during the course of the 
chase, there would be another ready to hand. To string the imple- 
ment it is pressed vertically on the ground with the left hand at the 
same time that the left knee presses it outward. While thus bent, 
the right hand twists the string a few times to render it more taut, 
and then slips the loop over the bow tip. The bowstring is made 
either of kuraua twine, at times of tucum leaf-fiber, or of the inner 
bark of trees called tururi (ARW, 338). , 
128. Arrows, shimara (Ara.), bail (Wap.), parau (Mak.), ete., 
may be described as consisting of a head, shaft, and nock. Wood, 
bone, or “ spurs ” of the sting ray are used as arrowheads. The wood 
employed may be that of the yarri-yarri or lancewood, the kokerit, 
the bamboo, etc. Turtle, monkey, fish, deer, and other animals per- 
haps supply the bone, but both wood and bone with advancing 
civilization have been more or less gradually replaced by iron. Im 
Thurn was informed by his Carib captain that in his youth the latter 
had seen bone, shell, or stone pointed arrows in common use. He 
himself reports having on one occasion seen stone-headed arrows in 
the possession of some Arekuna (IT, 241), but subsequently admits 
(IT, 423) that he only saw them used as toys. More probably what 
this traveler noted were the flakes (sec. 339) out of which the 
chips for the stone graters are obtained, applied to this purpose, for 
the Arekuna were certainly manufacturers of these household req- 
uisites. St. Clair has this to say: In the smaller end (of the arrows) 
they (Corentyn Arawak) fasten a piece of hardwood, which they 
tip with bones or flints in various forms according to the animal or 
bird against which the arrows are intended to be used (StC, 1, 331- 
332). The use of the term “ flints,” of which, strictly speaking, there 
are none here, is suspicious; and it is certainly very extraordinary 
that no other record at first hand is forthcoming of the application 
of shell or stone to such a purpose throughout all the Guianas. Spurs 
of the sting ray were fixed on the Orinoco war arrows which would 
cause a wound either fatal or very difficult of cure (G, mu, 205). In 
Cayenne, on the Parou River, such arrow points were destined for the 
hunting of the couata monkey (Cr, 308), and in our own colony they 
were employed by Makusi (SR, 1, 38), etc. St. Clair speaks of war 
arrows among the Corentyn Arawak having the bone of a particular 
fish dipped in poison (StC, 1, 331-332), while Barrére in Cayenne 
also makes record of fighting arrows being poisoned (sec. 128). It is 
matter for surprise that the Guiana Indians did not make far more 
frequent use than they apparently did of the curare when engaged 
