a Grass of the Tribe o/*Bambuse£e, 5fc. 561 



of this description are the Bambusece, of which the Curata is one of the most 

 remarkable. But the disproportionate length of its first joint has no parallel 

 among- the other species of that tribe. As far as I could ascertain, the first 

 joint indicates the growth of one period, which must be very short. The late- 

 ral shoots are only formed when the stem begins to increase in diameter; we 

 saw young stems, which at the height of twenty feet, and with a thickness of 

 scarcely a quarter of an inch, had as yet no signs of articulations. 



The uncertainty which has so long prevailed as to the plant which furnishes 

 the blowpipe-reed attests its scarcity : but this is more strikingly manifested 

 by the circumstance that the other Indians denote the Maiongcong and Gui- 

 nau tribes, who inhabit the only known regions where it grows, the Curata- 

 people. Nature has taught the Indians of the Rio Negro and the Amazon, 

 who have no intercourse with the Curata-people, to find a substitute in a 

 slender palm, which they hollow out by steeping the stem for some days in 

 water, when the internal structure may be easily pushed out by a stick. This 

 slender tube is introduced into a larger palm in the same manner as the Curata 

 into the stem of the Kunthia. Or sometimes the blowpipe merely consists of a 

 single palm of any species, the interior of which has been removed and burnt 

 out after having split the stem along its length into two parts. When this has 

 been done and the inside has been polished, the Indian of the Rio Negro joins 

 the two parts accurately together by an indigenous glue ; and a mouth-piece 

 of wood is added to it, which is considerably thicker than the tube. If it be 

 considered what labour is required to accomplish this task by the aid only of 

 a stone knife or an instrument made of the Bamboo, it becomes an obvious 

 inference, that the Curata, which is so much better adapted for the purpose, 

 does not grow in his neighbourhood. 



Limited only to a few spots, the constant demand for the reeds would soon 

 exhaust the stock, if there were not two circumstances which render it very 

 unlikely that they will be exterminated. These are, the numerous shoots 

 which originate from a single rootstock, combined with the rapid growth of 

 the shoots ; and the great cai'e which the Indian takes of his blowpipe. Even 

 when in quest of game, and winding his way through thickets which would 

 prove almost impenetrable to an unincumbered European, he carries his blow- 

 pipe erect, and accomplishes his purpose without injury to his weapon. "A 

 hunter," says Baron Humboldt, "preserves the same Sarbacan during his 



