XVIIl] 



UPAS AND ITS PREPARATION 



which, however, they do not make themselves, but get from the 

 Punans. These are the only kind of arrows used in Borneo, where 

 the bow appears to be quite unknown. The possibility of obtaining 

 such a deadly poison as upas must have caused the sumpitan to 

 supersede the bow. Without this or some similar poison the sum- 

 pitan is a harmless weapon and something more efficacious becomes 

 a necessity. As a proof of this I may instance certain tribes in 

 South America, who, as is well known, make use of a deadly poison 

 known as curare, urari, or wourali, prepared from some species of 

 Strychnos, and are also furnished with a blow-tube, whilst all 

 the other primitive native tribes of the same region use the bow. 

 In order to prepare upas poison, the milky sap of Antiaris toxi- 



Fig. 50. SHOOTING MONKEYS WITH THE SUMPITAN. 



(From the Sculptures of the Boro Budor Temple, Java.) 



carta is collected by making incisions in the bark, and is then con- 

 densed by exposure to the sun until sufficiently thick to adhere to 

 the palm leaves on which it is poured. These leaves are folded so 

 as to cover the gummy sap, and hung up over the fireplace so that 

 complete desiccation is obtained. When the poison is wanted for 

 use, the dried sap is dissolved in the juice of the roots of those plants 

 used for catching fish by poisoning the water generically known as 

 tuba by the Malays. My informers specified these by the names 

 of tuba rabut, tuba tedau, and tuba bennar. The upas must be dissolved 

 in the juice of one of the above-mentioned kinds — whether fresh or 

 not does not matter— until the mixture becomes of the consistence 

 of a paste, and this is spread on the points of the diminutive sum- 



the product of a creeper which grows in the Bintulu region. I was, however, 

 unable to get any further information on this plant, which may possibly 

 belong to the genus Strychnos, of which I found several species in Borneo. 



279 



