156 ARTS AND CRAFTS OF GUIANA INDIANS [BTH. ANN. 38 
in fighting their enemies. Curare-poisoned arrows are used in hunt- 
ing, but particularly for killing monkeys, who, when wounded with 
unpoisoned arrows, usually run to the crotch of a tree, from whence 
they do not fall even when dead; whereas, when pricked with a 
poison arrow, their limbs become useless and they fall to the ground 
(BA, 306). The arrowhead is known as tishiri (Ara., head), tabai 
(Wap., leg), pichi (Mak., foot), ete. 
129. To fix the iron or bone barb in position a slot is run along 
and about three-quarters through the wooden head. To be properly 
done in the orthodox manner this is a somewhat tedious process, be- 
cause a series of holes with a deer-horn drill has first of all to be 
made in the length required, and the intervening material then picked 
away with the same instrument (fig. 483). Once completed, the iron 
or bone is wedged in the groove, the whole bound round with kuraua 
twine, and finally covered with some form of native cement (sec. 19). 
130. The arrow shaft, ihi 
(Ara. name of the reed), 
baili (Wap.), ete., is usually 
made from a piece of arrow 
reed, the Gyneriwm saccha- 
roides, « plant which may 
be cultivated by the Indians 
especially for the purpose, 
e. g., on the upper Moruca. 
Near Johanna, Berbice, 
Pinckard reports having 
seen in the neighborhood of 
the huts some of the fine 
reeds growing which are used by the Indians for making their 
arrows. ‘They appeared to have been planted about the village 
for the convenience of furnishing a ready supply (Pnk, 1, 525). 
The plant is cut into lengths much longer (from 12 to 18 inches) 
than will be subsequently required, and after being made into bun- 
dles are left to dry for weeks, even months, under the house rafters, 
etc. It is never made to scale or by measurement with a pattern, but 
as will be shown directly, according to its own special requirements. 
Once sufficiently dried, a couple of inches or so are cut off from the 
smaller end, because, what with all the time taken during the drying 
process, some insect, etc., may have got into the pith. The extremity 
is tied round and round with string to prevent its bursting when the 
long, tapering point of the nock is now gradually pushed down, 
jammed, and screwed into the very center of the cut surface. When 
this aperture is at last completed and the hardwood peg loosened and 
extracted the latter is smeared with karrimanui or turara cement and 
with very firm pressure reinserted. When this is fixed the string 
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Fic, 43.—Arrows: Method of fixing barb in position, 
