NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW — HOLMBERG 



27 



arrow. The same methods are used with the paca 

 (titimi). The agouti (taiku) is more generally 

 shot while feeding on wild fruits which have 

 dropped from the trees in the forest. 



Most hunting is done individually or in groups 

 of two or three. Game is carried in from the 

 forest on the hunter's back. The animals are 

 bound together with liana and suspended from 

 the hunter's head with a tumpline of liana. Each 

 hunter carries in his own game. 



FISHING 



Unlike many of his South American Indian 

 contemporaries, who developed or adopted the 

 fishhook, traps, nets, or poisoning as methods of 

 catching fish, the Siriono does all his fishing with 

 the bow and arrow. His less developed tech- 

 niques consequently shut him out from a large 

 supply of fish that is found in the area, and has 

 limited fishing largely to the dry season, the 

 months of July, August, September, and October, 

 when the rivers and lakes are low and the waters 

 are clear. At this time there is an abundance of 

 fish in the low waters around the rapids, and these 

 are caught either by shooting them with the bow 

 and a barbed chonta-headed arrow or by stabbing 

 them with an arrow. 



Although I have seen some 15 edible varieties 

 of tropical fish, the Siriono rarely attempt to catch 

 more than four: catfish, bagre, bentones, and yeyu. 

 Occasionally, one of the larger fishes, such as the 

 pacu, is shot when feeding on chonta fruits that 

 have dropped into a river or stream, but this is 

 rare. 



Around the edge of lakes, the usual method of 

 catching fish is to wait in the overhanging branches 

 of a wild fruit tree that is shedding fruit on which 

 the fish are feeding. As the fish come up to eat 

 the fruits, which either fall naturally into the 

 water or are thrown in by the fisherman, they are 

 shot with the barbed chonta-headed arrow and 

 pinned to the bottom. Since the arrows are very 

 long and the branches are low, the hunter to re- 

 trieve his catch merely reaches down and ex- 

 tracts the arrow, the fish being held by the barb. 

 With patience and by occasionally changing his 

 position a man can shoot as many as a dozen 

 fish m a day by this method. 



Another source of fish, and perhaps the principal 

 one, are the small ponds and streams which fill 

 up with water and fish in the rainy season but 



which dry up in the dry season and offer the fish 

 no means of escape. When the waters are drying, 

 the fisherman walks through a pond catching the 

 fish with his hands, stabbing them with an arrow, 

 or hitting them on the head with a stick. 



Although ahnost all of the Siriono today possess 

 fishhooks, I rarely saw them actually used. Since 

 they have no watercraft of any kind, it is impos- 

 sible for them to reach the deep water where a 

 fishhook would be of special advantage to them. 

 Moreover, since they are not a river people, and 

 since most of their camps are inland, fishing is not 

 an important activity nor does it contribute much 

 to the food supply. 



COLLECTING 



In the total economy, collecting ranks next to 

 hunting in importance. This activity is partici- 

 pated in by both the men and women, and since 

 much of the collecting is done by nuclear families, 

 children get an early education in spotting and 

 gathering edible products from the forest. Al- 

 though women and children do considerable col- 

 lecting while the men are off hunting in the forest, 

 when it involves tree climbing they are always 

 accompanied by the men. Now that iron tools 

 have been introduced, many of the wild fruit trees 

 of the area are being destroyed, because the natives 

 find it easier to cut them down than to climb them 

 when harvesting fruits. 



Of all of the products collected, palm cabbage 

 (kisia) is the most important. Practically all of 

 the palms of the region yield an edible heart, but 

 motacu is the most abundant and one of the 

 easiest from which to extract the kisia (the tree 

 is always cut down). It provides a constant 

 source of vegetable food. This palm, moreover, 

 produces a fruit (yukudi) about the size of an egg, 

 which grows in bunches, and which also forms an 

 important staple in the diet the year around. 

 When pickings are especially slim these two prod- 

 ucts, although not very nourishing, can always 

 be relied upon to tide the Indians over until a 

 more substantial diet can be obtained. As we 

 shaU see later, the importance of the palm cabbage 

 is reflected in the magical aspect of the culture, 

 its collection by women being occasionally pre- 

 ceded by a magical bloodletting rite. 



Other palms, besides yielding a comestible heart 

 the year around, also bear fruits which mature in 

 a more seasonal cycle than the motacu. During 



