NOMADS OF THE LONG BOW — ^HOLMBERG 



23 



HUNTING 



No other activity of the men can match the 

 importance of hunting. The temper of the Siriono 

 camp, in fact, can be readily gaged by the supply 

 of game that is daily being bagged by the hunters ; 

 there is rarely ever equaled that joy which follows 

 a successful chase or that discontent which fol- 

 lows an unsuccessful one. 



Around every Siriono hut there are trails, 

 scarcely visible and marked only by an occasional 

 bent leaf or twig, spreading out in all directions. 

 On any morning just before daybreak it is a 

 common sight to see the naked hunters, bows and 

 arrows over their shoulders and perhaps with a 

 piece of roast manioc in their hands, silently 

 fading into the forest in all directions in quest of 

 game. Some go alone; others in pairs; still others 

 (as many as sLx or seven) may join together to go 

 in quest of a troop of peccaries or a band of spider 

 monkeys. 



Besides his bow, each hunter takes with him 

 about eight arrows — five with a barbed chonta 

 head to hunt small tree game and three with a 

 bamboo head to hunt larger ground game. As he 

 leaves the hut the hunter walks silently but rapidly 

 through the forest so as to arrive early at those 

 spots such as water holes most likely to contain 

 game, and as he goes along he searches the 

 branches above him and the forest around him for 

 a stirring leaf or a snapping twig that might indi- 

 cate the presence of game. 



Almost all animals of the environment except 

 snakes are hunted, and various techniques are 

 employed to bag game, depending upon the type 

 of animal one encounters. Since the bow and 

 arrow must be depended upon exclusively, and 

 since the quarry must be close to be shot with such 

 a cumbersome weapon, the Siriono is a master 

 at both stalking and imitation. He can imitate to 

 perfection the whistle of a bird, of a monkey, of a 

 tapir, or the call of a peccary. There is not an 

 animal sound of the forest, in fact, which he does 

 not know and is not able to skillfully imitate. In 

 hunting guan, for instance, he whistles Uke one 

 of the young; if there is a guan within hearing, it 

 is brought within range of the bow by this means. 

 1 have frequently seen guan brought to a branch 

 within 10 feet of a hunter, and on one occasion, 

 daring the mating season, I saw one brought so 



close by this method that it was actually caught 

 alive in the hunter's hand. 



So as not to disturb his quarry, a hunter re- 

 frains from talking when in quest of game and 

 communicates with his companions largely by 

 whistling. This speciahzed language has become 

 so highly developed among the Siriono as to en- 

 able hunters to carry on limited conversations, 

 and it is often used to advantage. On one oc- 

 casion, when I was hunting with two Indians 

 along the banks of a brook, my companion and I, 

 who were on one side, suddenly heard a whistle 

 from the opposite bank, along which the third 

 member of our party was walking. We stopped 

 immediately and my companion answered the 

 whistle, to which the other replied in turn. After 

 several moments of whistling conversation my 

 companion selected an arrow, put it in his bow, 

 walked a few feet ahead, aimed into a tree, and 

 released the arrow. Down fell a curassow, much 

 to my surprise. What had occurred was that our 

 comrade on the other side of the brook could see 

 the bird, which was not visible to us, but it was 

 out of range of his bow. As it was possible for us 

 to get in range, he indicated by whistling the loca- 

 tion of the bird, so that it was relatively easy for 

 my companion to walk to the spot and shoot it. 



Other types of cooperation between hunters 

 have developed because of imusual circumstances 

 encountered in the jungle. The area, for instance, 

 contains many tail trees in which game is some- 

 times situated at such a height that it is out of 

 range of the bow. If a hunter is alone he will 

 usually be forced to pass up such game, but if a 

 companion is \vith him they may cooperate in 

 making an effort to secure it. This is done in the 

 following manner. One of the hunters shngs liis 

 taut bow over his back and climbs up the tree 

 to a branch that is within range of the animal. 

 If the trunk is of such thickness as to prevent 

 him from cUmbing directly up the tree, a sapling 

 is cut and bound to the trunk with hana. He 

 then climbs this sapling until the branches of the 

 tree can be reached. Once in position to shoot 

 the animal, he signals to his companion below, 

 who puts an arrow into his bow and releases it 

 with just enough force to reach the hunter aloft. 

 The latter, as the arrow goes by, gi-abs it, puts it 

 in his bow, and shoots the animal. This is by 

 no means a common method of hunting and is 

 practiced only in case the animal in the tree is one 



