136 



THE BLOW-GUN. 



resembling a cross between a squirrel and a bare, is placed on top for a 

 sigbt. Tbe arrow is made of any ligbt wood, generally the wild cane, 

 or tbe middle fibre of a species of palm-leaf, wbicb is about a foot in 

 length, and of the thickness of an ordinary lucifer match. The end of 

 the arrow, which is placed next to the mouth, is wrapped with a light, 

 delicate sort of wild cotton, which grows in a pod upon a large tree, and 

 is called huimba; and the other end, very sharply pointed, is dipped in 

 a vegetable poison prepared from the juice of the creeper, called bejuco 

 de a?nbihuasca, mixed with aji, or strong red pepper, barbasco, sarnango, 

 and whatever substances the Indians know to be deleterious. The 

 marksman, when using his pucuna, instead of stretching out the left 

 hand along the body of the tube, places it to his mouth by grasping it, 

 with both hands together, close to the mouth-piece, in such a manner 

 that it requires considerable strength in the arms to hold it out at all, 

 much less steadily. If a practised marksman, he will kill a small bird at 

 thirty or forty paces. In an experiment that I saw, the Indian held the 

 pucuna horizontally, and the arrow blown from it stuck in the groun^L 

 ^ at thirty-eight paces. Commonly the Indian has quite an affection for 

 his gun, and many superstitious notions about it. I could not persuade 

 one to shoot a very pretty black and yellow bird for me because it was 

 a carrion bird ; and the Indian said that it would deteriorate and make 

 useless all the poison in his gourd. Neither will he discharge his 

 pucuna at a snake, for fear of the gun being made crooked like the 

 reptile ; and a fowling-piece or rifle that has once been discharged at an 

 alligator is considered entirely worthless. A round gourd, with a hole 

 in it for the huimba, and a joint of the cafia brava as a quiver, com- 

 pletes the hunting apparatus. 



August 3. — Went to church. The congregation — men, women, and 

 children — numbered about fifty ; the service was conducted by the gov- 

 ernor, assisted by the alcalde. A little naked, bow legged Indian child, 

 of two or three years, and Ijurra's pointer puppy, which he had brought 

 all the way from Lima on his saddle-bow, worried the congregation with 

 their tricks and gambols ; but altogether they were attentive to their 

 prayers, and devout. I enjoyed exceedingly the public worship of God 

 with these rude children of the forest ; and, although they probably 

 understood little of what they were about, I thought I could see its 

 humanizing and fraternizing effect upon all. # 



At night we had a ball at the governor's house. The alcalde, who 

 was a trump, produced his fiddle ; another had a rude sort of guitar, or 

 banjo ; and under the excitement of his music, and the aguadiente of 

 the governor, who had had his cane ground in anticipation of our arrival, 



