INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTHERN MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL OBERG 



31 



during this period. The wood is first shaped with 

 an ax and later with a knife and finally rubbed 

 down and smoothed with a piece of sandstone. 

 The length of the bow varies with the maker, but 

 most of the bows seen ranged between 6 and 7 feet. 

 In the middle these bows are 1 inch in width and 

 three-quarters of an inch in thickness. The wood 

 when new is brick-colored but gradually darkens 

 until an old bow is almost black. Eventually an 

 old bow loses its resilience and is discarded. The 

 light-colored bow, which is elliptical in cross 

 section, is shorter and is made by young men. It 

 is weaker and does not last as long as the rectan- 

 gular bow. Small bows for boys are also made 

 from this wood. 



The bow string is made from imbauba fibers 

 spun into a strong cord about one-eighth of an 

 inch in diameter. Both ends of the bow have a 

 shoulder to hold the bow string in place, the 

 extra cord being brought down to the middle of 

 the bow and wrapped tightly around it. 



The Camayura make excellent arrows, aver- 

 aging 5.5 feet in length, from uba cane or taquari 

 (bamboo). The typical arrow, i'ip, has three 

 principal parts: (1) the shaft, (2) the foreshaft, 

 and (3) the head. In addition to these parts, the 

 maker needs feathers, sip6 vine, and cotton twine 

 for lacing, beeswax and rosin to give the lacings 

 firmness and to give the arrow bands of reddish- 

 yellow coloring. In the arrow which the Cama- 

 yura prize most highly, the shaft is made of a piece 

 of smooth faultless uba cane 53 inches long and 

 one-half of an inch in diameter. Into one end 

 of this hollow shaft he inserts a foreshaft so that 

 about 6 inches remains inside of the shaft and 

 about 12 inches is left protruding. The foreshaft 

 is made from a branch of some hardwood and is 

 wavy or sometimes almost corkscrewlike in shape. 

 To hold the foreshaft in place and to prevent the 

 cane from splitting, the joint is tightly bound with 

 a narrow brown-colored strip of sipd vine bark. 

 About 4 inches below the joint the cane shaft is 

 given another 6 inches of lacing, both to reinforce 

 the shaft and to give it beauty. Another narrow 

 band of lacing is placed about 8 or 10 inches from 

 the feather end of the shaft as well. 



To the foreshaft the Camayura fix a variety of 

 arrowheads or points made from the stings of a 

 stingray, monkey arm bones, or from the small 

 ribs of the tapir and jaguar. The bones are 



whittled down until they are slender splints from 

 2 to 3 inches in length and slightly bow-shaped. 

 This splint is then laid onto the flattened point of 

 the foreshaft and tightly bound with waxed 

 cotton twine, so that one end of the bone forms 

 the point and the other a single barb. A heated 

 piece of jatoba rosin is then applied just back of 

 the binding and the arrow is turned so that a 

 2-inch band of yellow or red rosin adheres to the 

 head, strengthening it against the softening effects 

 of water. The Camayura now like to use 3-inch 

 wire nails or bits of heavy wire, for much less 

 work is required to prepare points from these 

 materials. For war and for hunting the jaguar 

 and the tapir a bamboo point is used. In this 

 case no foreshaft is required. The bamboo point 

 is about 18 inches long with a lancelike point 

 which is fitted into the cane shaft in the same 

 manner as the foreshaft. The broad sharp-edged 

 blade evidently inflicts a greater wound, thus 

 giving increased killing power. The Camayura 

 also make a whistling arrow which is used for 

 hunting birds and for games. It is the favorite 

 arrow of the boys. A hollow tucum palm nut 

 about 1% inches in diameter is fitted over the end 

 of the cane shaft, being firmly held in place with 

 beeswax. Two or three narrow slits are cut into 

 the nut so that when it is shot it makes a sharp 

 whistling sound. Sometimes the foreshaft is also 

 put in so that the whistling nut fits into the joint 

 made by the foreshaft and shaft. This arrow kills 

 birds by stunning them. 



The Camayura, like the other Xingu tribes, 

 have a characteristic way of feathering their 

 arrows. The large feathers of the urubu, mutum, 

 or hawk are split and the two halves are fixed to 

 the shaft at a 45° angle of torsion, the feathers 

 varying from 8 to 10 inches in length. The ends 

 are first bound to the shaft with sip6 vine in the 

 anterior part and cotton twine in the posterior 

 part. The feathers are then sewn onto the shaft 

 through small holes made into the cane at five or 

 six different sections, each section having three 

 transverse bindings. The end is decorated with 

 a narrow band of red and yellow toucan feathers. 

 In sewing the feathers onto the shaft the Cama- 

 yura use a fish tooth for a needle and "caitetu" 

 (peccary) hail 1 for thread. 



It is doubtful whether the Camayura have a 

 general word for the arrow, each type of arrow 



